Author's Note :

THANK YOU! Ooh ! Thank you for your reviews. I'm going to take Colin's advice and explain the depression. The beginnings explained here: the rest comes in the next chapter.

This chapter is dedicated to Colin, because he's review was so nice! I have never been talented before! Thank you!

Gonzogirl: Of course the Barrow gang is going to take place here! You really did think they wouldn't pop up? Oh- three guesses on who the Barrow Gang is going to be (they will start their appearance in the fourth chapter).

Occeannia: Updated soon enough?

Amscary: Thanks for your review. I liked the quote quite a lot. And:All in good time. Cigars, machine guns, the 'Barrow gang', shooting and non-hookerish cloths are still to come. There's actually a reason why Hermione was dressed up as a hooker. Kinda…

This chapter and the chapter after this one tell what happened to our favourite trio during end of Seventh Year.

Now: ANYONE WITH EXTRA, UNUSUAL INFO ON BONNIE AND CLYDE PLEASE CONTACT ME! I've got just the basic stuff about them. If there is something you'd would like to incorportae to this story, please do.

The beginning of the End

It started rather simply.

It was summer and it was warm and sunny outside as well. The sun was shining, tinting Hermione's face and arms in light brown tones, dotting Ron's body with freckles and burning Harry's pale skin. The sky was perfectly blue and the lake was as blue as the sky. The green of the forest was so incredibly bright and reminded one of a clichéd postcard. All the people oiled themselves and were therefore shining in the sun.

Hermione wore skirts and dresses and sleeveless shirts and studied for hours no end in the sun. She lay in the middle of sunny spots, making her friends run after her with litres of cool drinks and planted parasols around her like huge plastic flowers. She didn't stress one bit for her NEWTs, assured to pass them with flying colours. No one doubted about that. She had been, after all, six years in a row the best student in school.

Harry would stay inside or play Quidditch as often as possible. Hermione of course insisted that he'd study at least two hours per day. He did so, wearing T-shirts or being topless, having on ridiculously tight shorts, getting burnt in the sun. He couldn't understand how Hermione managed to stay outside so long without passing out or becoming sleepy. His Quidditch skills had greatly improved, as well as his knowledge about Aurors. Harry was the only one who was regularly updated about the whereabouts of the Order.

Ron couldn't believe how careless his best friends were. He ran after Harry with his books and checked regularly that Hermione had something to drink. Hermione often insisted on him to stay with her, and he did so, often dozing off instead of reading. This is how his face became very freckled, and sometimes, after she had finished reading some book about something, Hermione would pass her time counting the freckles on the nose of her friend. She even sometimes started playing connect-the-dots on his face.

The war was raging around them, yet they didn't feel the repercussions of it in Hogwarts. They had given up the idea of spying on the Order by themselves: the war will bring them bad news soon enough. Now they just lived in the sun, savouring the last weeks of peace they had. They created perfect days, their only trouble being their exams.

The war: they would join it soon as well. They lived the last week of peace before the storm of the battles. School was almost over; their exams as well. So far, everything had been so perfect, and somehow synthetic as well. Their friendship had run deeper than ever before after the deaths of Sirius and of Hagrid, who had kicked the bucket during their Sixth year. It had been a good death for him: he had been stung by some strange creature sent by the Death Eaters to attack Hogwarts. Thanks to him, the creature couldn't lay its eggs. Hagrid had saved them all. He had died a smile on his face, joining his Olympe who had been murdered a year before.

The horrible news and deaths just knitted the trio closer. They became one person, only they had three heads, six pair of arms, three pair of legs, three separate bodies. But their minds were connected, as were their spirits and their love. They never talked about love; not really. It was present, yet they never uttered a word about it. It was more taboo than the deaths of Sirius and Hagrid.

Their lives were oddly happy, flawless, just as if the days were like a VCR stuck on a repeat button. They knew it wouldn't last. Yet they hoped it did. After school was over, they wanted to continue on living a perfect life during the summer. In autumn, everything would change. Harry would begin his Auror training, Hermione would start study to become an Unspeakable, and Ron was starting as an apprentice at Gringrotts to become a curse-breaker, like his elder brother.

Bill had become their newest Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, thus leaving a place free for his brother to take. Ron jumped on the occasion: receiving so quickly a job wasn't easy. Besides it was something that interested him quite a lot. And it would also be useful in war, to know about dark, ancient curses. You never knew what does horrible Death Eaters were up to.

Their summer was planned to be passed at Hermione's place. The two boys had often met Hermione's parents. They were two absolutely lovely people, very shy, very proud of their daughter. They worked very much and were happy to know Hermione had friends that took care of her. They had gladly accepted to let Hermione settle with her friends to their apartment in London and live there for the summer. Her parents were holding a dozens of seminars in France, leaving their flat empty.

They knew about the war. They did never talk about it, yet they were relieved as they learned their daughter was becoming an Unspeakable (Hermione had to start with research work as all the new Unspeakables-in-training; the work wasn't hard, but it was extensive, and took a very long time). No field work for Hermione these upcoming years. Not for Harry either. The only one to receive some concrete action was Ron.

Yet they should have all three known perfectly that it was too good to last.

The first deception started after school: Harry had immediately to take his Auror exams. He got in of course, and started his Auror training straight away. His friends sighed at this, yet they knew he couldn't fight his fate (or at least, he couldn't fight Dumbledore, the ministry and the Aurors). He told them to carry on their summer plans. They promised to do that.

Ron came to London a week after graduation, freckled and laughing. Hermione had installed him in her room, herself sleeping in the tiny, cupboard-sized guest room. Their life started that summer. They had a perfectly synchronized routine: she woke up first, making coffee and whilst she was showering Ron brought fresh bakeries for break-fast. They did something together (going to a museum, shopping or study for their work) and eat outside for lunch. Then they would take a nap, and finally go out in the evening.

Their days were perfect. They longed for nothing more. Something that had always been there between them intensified. They always danced together, bodies entangles, moving together with the music. People didn't flirt with them because they sensed it would be totally useless. This was fine by them: Hermione didn't want a "summer-love". She would have to dump him anyway. Ron was afraid of letting something slip about the wizarding world. They completed each other. They knew it.

They didn't set a foot in the wizarding world. The only contact they had to magic was the owls they sent to their families and to Harry (they also eventually used magic to get rid of the household chores).

Ron adored muggle London. The first day together had been somehow tiring, first visiting the Victoria & Albert museum, then getting acquainted with all the different food types the city contained. They had eaten kebab, pizza, Chinese food, Italian ice-cream and fudge all in one day. They had had the belly ache of their lives the same night.

Suddenly their idyllic little life was over: work began. Ron stayed at the Grangers, living permanently at the Granger's flat. They still didn't dated. Hermione had proposed to Harry to come and live with them, but Harry gently declined the offer. He lived with the Auror which trainee he was: Tonks.

Fall had passed quickly, not leaving much for the three friends to come together. They occasionally passed each others in Diagon Alley. Hermione had lunch each day with Harry, and during the week ends, Ron joined them. She had dinner with her parents and Ron. Harry and Ron had the same curse and charm specialization courses with Moody. Although the hard work and the war drained them of their energy, they started to go out more often during winter.

Christmas had been passed at Grimmauld place with all the Weaslys and the Grangers along with Tonks, Snape and various other people, friends from school and work. The Christmas party itself hadn't been very grand; the economy of the country going badly because of the war.

No one could have ever guessed how the Second War would have influenced the people so badly. It hadn't been only the war itself: Death Eaters didn't operate openly, no massive murder were going on. Yet the Death Eaters managed to make the wizarding world collapse from the inside.

The country was almost living in a state of anarchy: no one trusted the ministry and the Order was too occupied with Voldemort. The wizarding world started to sense the first warning signs of an economical disaster: a depression as great as the one which startled the world during the last century in the mid thirties in the USA.

But anyone thought it was just a phase; that the economical crisis would pass quickly. How wrong they were! But no one could have foreseen the tragic state the wizarding world would have after the war.

Now everyone was living day for day, holding themselves at bay from new things to happen. People created happy memories, things to cling too. Hermione and Ron started to realize that they were each others happy memories, and started to cling to each other even more than before.

The more reviews i recieve, the quicker I'll update. Ha!