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A/N: Thank you to my reviewers! I have 350 reviews! And guess what? This is chapter 50 and it falls on page 300! Wow…I think I may go up to page 320…and there might be a sequel.

So, all of you reviewers and readers if you'd like a sequel, please review at the end of this short and crap chapter and tell me!

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Chapter Fifty

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A funeral for Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, Emmeline Vance, Garrick Ardel, Mad-Eye Moody, Bernard Straw, Edgar Truckle, Patricia Jones, and Kelly Wells was held the next day on the Hogwarts grounds, near the lake. By that time, Ginny and Harry were going out.

The day after the funeral was the start of their exams. Hermione, of course, was very jittery, even though she and the rest of the school knew that she would do perfectly fine.

By that night, the entire Gryffindor house was exhausted from being tested to hard, and most of them went to bed a bit early, including Pepper. After tossing and turning for two hours and deciding that sleep was definitely not going to come, she climbed out of bed and went down to the common room. The only person occupying the room was Harry, clad in only flannel pajama bottoms, and staring into the dying fire. His legs were drawn up to his chest.

"Hey Harry," Pepper said, stepping into the ring of light the fire gave off.

Harry glanced up. "Oh, hey Pepper," he said, giving her a half-hearted smile.

She took a seat next to him on the couch. "I couldn't sleep," she said, explaining her presence.

"Me neither," said Harry. Then he fell silent, staring into the tiny flames dancing in the fireplace.

"Do you want to talk about something?" Pepper asked, staring into the fireplace as well.

"I can't stop thinking about all those people that died because of me," said Harry blandly.

"I think I assisted with that, Harry," Pepper said.

"If it weren't for me…" Harry looked over at Pepper, and she turned to face him. His eyes were full of indescribable emotion. "If it weren't for me Sirius would still be alive," he whispered.

"Harry, no," she said, shaking her head. "No, it wasn't your fault…you didn't kill him."

"I've been thinking about him and my parents a lot lately. And if I had never been born they never would have had to die…all three of them would still be alive right now," said Harry, not dropping his gaze from Pepper's. He wanted her to know what he was feeling without actually explaining it.

"And most of the world would be dead, Harry. Don't blame any of this on yourself. None of it, absolutely none, is your fault," Pepper said gently. "You just saved the world Harry. You saved everything, not destroyed it."

Harry shook his head slightly. "Someone else could have done it, like Neville. And people wouldn't have died because of me."

His emerald eyes swam with tears and Pepper's heart broke. "Harry," she said, and her voice was strained, "it's all over. You don't have to worry about anything anymore. You saved the world—"

"Pepper, don't you get it!" Harry practically yelled. His eyes were now full of fire, though the tears were still present. He looked away from her, back into the fire, and when he turned to her again, tears were streaking his cheeks. "You should hate me! I killed your father!"

"Harry, no," she said, tears welling up in her eyes as well. She hated seeing Harry like this. He was usually so strong… "Harry, you only did good things. You did not kill my father. It's not your fault at all…" her voice faltered and she cast her eyes down.

"I'm so sorry, Pepper," Harry said. When Pepper looked up at his face, she saw that he was crying freely.

She pulled him into a hug and let him cry on her shoulder. He was sobbing now; sobs that shook his body. Pepper stroked his back. She wondered how often he did this when he was alone. "Harry, don't blame yourself for anything. You just saved the entire population of the world from Voldemort."

This didn't seem to comfort Harry. Pepper wasn't sure if anything would. She tried a different tactic. "If you were a bad person you wouldn't have so many people that love you, Harry. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, the Weasley family, Professor Dumbledore, Lupin, me…we all love you Harry. Everyone loves you. You're amazing and wonderful."

She felt Harry laugh into her shoulder. "It's true," Pepper stressed.

Harry turned his head and rested the side of it on Pepper's shoulder, looking into the fire again. She rested her cheek on his head. "You don't usually talk to someone when you break down like this, do you?" Pepper asked.

"No," said Harry throatily. "It's not like I do this often, though."

"I know I just happened to intercept this, but you can talk to me, Hermione, Ron or your girlfriend anytime, Harry. You should know that. It's okay to be vulnerable at times. We know you're strong. Plus, it's not good to bottle up your feelings. I should know."

They were silent for a few moments. Then Harry said, "Your birthday's coming up soon, isn't it?"

She lifted her head from his. "Yes, it's on Friday. How'd you know that?"

"Sirius kept talking about you around this time last year. All he wanted to do was get you the perfect gift…I think that's when I first learned about you. He would not stop telling everyone around him everything about you," said Harry. Pepper could tell that he was smiling at the memory.

"Really?" said Pepper. "He never told me about you." She rested her head back on Harry's. "What'd he tell you about me?"

"That you were marvelous." Harry chuckled. "That you were so smart and beautiful and wonderful. He basically made you out to be the best person on earth. Truth be told, it made me a little intimidated of you. Sirius used to flash pictures of you all over the place, though they weren't recent. Before I met you I thought you were this little eleven-year-old looking girl. He was so proud of you, Pepper."

Pepper just sighed, staying silent. Harry's head rose and fell with her shoulders.

"You're thinking about that Féminin Vivreencore Curse, aren't you?" Harry asked, raising his head.

The corner of Pepper's mouth turned up into a half-smile. "How'd you know?" she wondered.

Harry shrugged. "It's what I was thinking about," he said. "But I don't know if it's even worth trying at this point…like brewing it over the summer or something. After we both came that close to death…I don't think I want to risk that again."

"Yeah," said Pepper, shrugging as well. "I think we're just going to have to move on. What's done is done. There isn't any good in dwelling on it for too long. Plus, we're not, like, going out or anything anymore. So the kiss part…"

Pepper realized that was the wrong thing to say as soon as the words left her lips. They fell into an uncomfortable silence, neither looking at the other.

"You're happy with Ginny, right?" Pepper said finally, wanting to break the silence.

Harry caught her eye for his response. He wanted to prove to her that he was truthful. He wanted to prove it to himself, come to that. "Yes, I'm very happy with her," he replied.

Pepper nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. "That's good," she nodded, and smiled to show she meant it, even though she wasn't sure she did.

A little after midnight Pepper crept back into her dorm room. As she passed by Hermione's bed, she heard heavy, labored breathing from behind the curtains. "Hermione…?" Pepper said. She parted the curtains to find a disheveled Hermione: brown hair sticking out, face pale even in the dark of the room. She was gasping for breath; the bed sheets had all been kicked from her body. She seemed to be oblivious of Pepper's presence.

"Hermione," Pepper repeated, climbing onto the foot of the bed.

Hermione's head snapped up. "Pepper," she said. "I had a nightmare."

Pepper crawled closer to her friend. "Do you want some company, then?" she asked.

"Pepper, I'm afraid," Hermione admitted as she and Pepper lay back on Hermione's pillow.

"Of what?" Pepper asked, facing Hermione's worried profile. Hermione was staring at the canopy above her.

"I really haven't got anyplace to live," said Hermione. "My only relatives are in Australia and I've only met them twice in my entire life." Her voice caught and Pepper moved closer to her friend, resting her forehead on the side of Hermione's head.

"Hermione, would you want to live with me?" she asked quietly, seeing as her mouth was placed right next to Hermione's ear.

"If it were possible I would," Hermione whispered in return.

"What if it were possible?" said Pepper. "I want you to. I've talked to my aunts already and they agreed to let you live with us. They know how much I care about you and they care about you too."

"Pepper," said Hermione, raising her head from the pillow, causing Pepper to move her head back a bit. Hermione looked down at her friend from her raised position. "Pepper, are you inviting me to come live with you?" Hermione breathed in disbelief.

Pepper propped her head up with her hand, pushing her dark hair back from her face. "That's what I'm doing," she said. "I can understand if you don't want to. I mean, you've only known me for a year and I'm sure you'd like to see Australia…"

"Pepper are you mad?" said Hermione, her eyes wide. She was sitting up completely now. "I would absolutely love to come and live with you! I can't believe your aunts agreed to it…"

Hermione was out of breath, her eyes shining. "We'll have to share a room," said Pepper, sitting up as well. "There are already five people living in the house…six with the baby…wow…"

"I don't care, I'll help out as much as I can," said Hermione quickly. "I just…this is so exciting! I want to go thank your aunts right now."

"Hermione, it's the middle of the night, I doubt they're awake," Pepper pointed out. She was grinning, though. "And we have exams tomorrow, so I think you should probably get some sleep."

"Oh yes…right," said Hermione. She hugged Pepper. "Thank you so much, Pepper. I'll visit your aunts tomorrow…good night." She released Pepper from the hug.

"Good night Hermione," said Pepper, and she left Hermione's four-poster to go to her own.

The next day Hermione did indeed go and visit Pepper's aunts. After dinner she hurried up to their tower, Pepper and Ron in tow. Harry was off somewhere with Ginny; none of them wanted to know where.

Hermione knocked on the entrance to their quarters and the first person that answered the knock was almost knocked to the ground by a crushing embrace from Hermione. It appeared that she had launched herself at Paige. When she finally stepped back, Paige could see who it was.

"Hello, Hermione," she greeted, a crooked smile on her face. She had a slight idea of what this was about.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" said Hermione in a rush. "I'd really love to come and live with you! I won't be a burden. I'll do whatever you want me to!"

"Come in," Paige laughed. "Hi Pepper, Ron," she said once she realized that Hermione was not alone.

The four of them settled themselves in the sitting room. "Piper's picked out a name," Paige announced proudly.

"What is it?" Pepper asked, smiling.

"Wyatt Matthew Halliwell," said a voice. Piper was standing at the top of the spiral staircase and she came down, Wyatt in her arms. "Hi Ron, hi Hermione," she said before she returned turned back to the subject of her son. "I named him Wyatt after his father, and Matthew after his Aunt Paige."

"So his name is just a bunch of surnames put together," Pepper concluded, taking the baby from Piper as she came over and raising an eyebrow at her aunt.

"Basically," said Piper. "So, why is it you're all here?"

"Hermione wants to come live with us," said Pepper, tickling her cousin under the chin.

"Yes, I really would," Hermione beamed. "Thank you so much for the offer, I don't really want to go live in Australia which is where I'd have to be if you didn't—"

"Hermione, it's no problem at all, you'll just have to pull your weight around the house," Piper said.

"Yes, of course," Hermione nodded. She hadn't been able to stop smiling all day.

"We'll have to get you a bed before the term's over…Pepper, do you mind if we rearrange your room a bit?" Piper looked at her niece. "We'll have to get the room set up before Hermione moves in…"

"No problem," Pepper shrugged.

"You all have exams to study for; you'd better go do that!" Paige said. "We don't want your grades slipping just because of us. We'll work everything out for Hermione to live with us. Now go enjoy the last week you have."

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A/N: Once again, you people who want a sequel, even if you've never reviewed the story…if you're reading and you want a sequel, please review and tell me so!