Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. tear.
Chapter 14: The Burrow (finally!)
Hermione, George, and Fred walked quietly, side by side, down the path leading from Ottery St. Catchpole to the Burrow as their bags floated lazily behind them. George squeezed Hermione's hand reassuringly from time to time and smiled encouragingly at her. She tried to muster up a smile in return.
"Hermione, you're looking quite peaky, are you going to be ok?" George asked as they neared the entrance to the Burrow.
"I think I might throw up," Hermione croaked back. George cringed, sincerely hoping she was not about to throw up right here on their front lawn.
"Listen, I'll take our bags in and tell Mum we're here while you guys take a moment," Fred said. Hermione shot him an appreciative glance. George took her in his arms as she managed a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.
"Everything is going to be fine, Hermione. She's going to be so excited to see you, I swear. She doesn't have any hard feelings towards you, I promise," he whispered in a soothing voice. She nodded up at him signaling that she was ready to go up to the house, but her eyes screamed "get me out of here." He chose to ignore her great big scared eyes and pushed her slightly ahead of him down the path. When George and Hermione were only steps away from the door they dropped each other's hands. They had agreed ahead of time that today was definitely not the time to tell everyone they were in a relationship. Hermione took another deep breath as George reached out to open the door. He was saved the trouble, though, when it was flung open by Mrs. Weasley herself. She had a wide, welcoming smile on her face, which seemed to slide off the second she saw Hermione.
"You're marrying Hermione!" She shouted. Hermione's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as she looked from George to Mrs. Weasley and back to George. He didn't even seem phased by his mother's strange outburst.
"Mum, I told you I'm not marrying anyone at the moment. I insisted that I was just bringing a friend. And now look what you've done. You got so excited about some silly fictional marriage that you've barely noticed Hermione," George scolded. Hermione was blushing tremendously and looking at her feet. Suddenly she was pulled into one of her trademark bone-crushing hugs while Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. Hermione patted Molly awkwardly on the back as the older woman's body was racked with sobs. She was trying to say something which Hermione could just barely make-out as "I'm sorry, so sorry." This made Hermione even more uncomfortable, as she definitely was the one who should have been apologizing. Tears sprung to Hermione's eyes at seeing Molly Weasley in this state. With a final sniff, the older woman pushed Hermione away, holding her at an arm's distance and looking at her appraisingly.
"Oh Hermione, you're beautiful," Mrs. Weasley gushed. Hermione blushed as George looked at her proudly. "Please come in dear, we have so much to talk about," she said pulling her across the threshold and back towards the kitchen. George and Fred followed, giving each other a relieved smile. Once the four of them joined a very surprised Arthur at the kitchen table and helped themselves to cups of tea, they began telling the story of how Hermione and George met up, leaving out the romantic details, of course.
When the story had been told from start to finish, Hermione felt a great weight lifted off her shoulders. It was very strange to be back in the Burrow after so many years, but so little had changed. She knew Molly kept the sugar in the blue canister that had been broken and glued back together too many times to count. She knew that the spoons were kept in the second drawer on the left. She even knew the tiny corner where Molly kept the chocolate éclairs hidden in case a very special guest happened to drop by, though she never guessed she would ever be that very special guest. Hermione smiled to herself, feeling more at home in the Burrow than she had ever felt in her little flat in London. Unfortunately, she was pulled from her reverie by a noise from the clock on the kitchen wall. More hands had been added, she noticed, for Fleur and Penelope, even one for Harry, who was not yet, officially part of the family.
"Oh dear. Traveling?" Mrs. Weasley said, looking at Ginny and Harry's hands. "Oh Hermione, love, are you ready for this?" she asked apprehensively. Hermione paled a little but gave a weak nod.
"Maybe Fred and I could go in and warn them. Tell them that Hermione is here and then let them come in and greet her. That might prevent any sort of volatile reactions," George said. Hermione winced at the "volatile reactions" part, but nodded, giving her consent. She watched the twins walk out of the kitchen towards the front door, ready to greet Harry and Ginny with their big news. Hermione went to work chewing her fingernails voraciously while Mrs. Weasley rubbed her back. Suddenly they heard Harry's voice (oh how she'd missed it!) scream "WHAT?" and a second later the kitchen door banged open and Ginny threw herself into Hermione's arms. They held each other for a moment, tears running down both their faces.
"Congratulations on completing your training," Hermione said when she got a hold on herself, remembering that this day was about Ginny, not her.
"Oh who cares about that?" Ginny laughed, "I just can't believe you're here!" Harry slipped into the kitchen quietly and hung back shyly. Hermione smiled at him uncertainly.
"Hi Harry," Hermione said in a soft voice, barely above a whisper.
"Hey Hermione," he answered back, moving across the kitchen to hug her somewhat bashfully. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, breathing in his scent deeply. She pulled away and looked, teary-eyed, into his big emerald eyes. She'd honestly never thought she'd see them again. Ginny stepped over and wrapped both of them in her arms. Smiling, George wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist from behind and rested his chin on her head.
"Awww, I just can't resist a group hug," Fred said as he weaseled his way into the center of the bunch. With a laugh Arthur and Molly Weasley also headed over to wrap their arms around the kids. With all the hugging, crying, and laughing, no one seemed to notice that Ron's hand on the clock had gone from "working" to "traveling" to "home."
"Hey guys, what's with all the hugging?" Ron said as he came into the kitchen, slinging his cloak over a kitchen chair. The group separated a little to reveal Hermione standing there, looking extremely uncomfortable. Ron's chin dropped as he caught sight of her.
"Hi Ron," Hermione said shyly. For several moments Ron could not find his voice and made odd choking noises.
"Hermione," he managed to spit out.
Ron definitely did not intend to hug Hermione. He didn't particularly want to touch her at all, but when she flung herself at him and clung to him like her life depended on it, he could not help but hug her back. When she finally pulled out of the hug, Ron's t-shirt was soaked through with her tears.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she cried. He really didn't know what to do and looked up at Harry for some sort of answer. Harry shrugged, quite uncertain how to deal with the situation himself. Luckily, Mrs. Weasley took control of the situation.
"Ok, ok dear. Why don't we all sit down and discuss this? I'm sure Ron, Harry, and Ginny have a lot of questions for you," she suggested as she guided Hermione to a chair at the table. Ginny and Harry sat down eagerly, but Ron walked over a little more tentatively, letting Hermione's presence in his kitchen again sink in. Since Fred had already heard the story once that day (not to mention, having lived it) he accompanied his father into the backyard to check on the barbecue. George stayed behind, however, and sat next to Hermione, inconspicuously rubbing her knee supportively under the table. As Hermione began her story with a shaking voice, Ginny shot George a strange look across the table. Though he was quite sure she could not see his hand on Hermione's knee, he removed it hastily.
When Hermione finished telling her story for the second time in one day, Harry leaned back in his chair giving a low whistle.
"Wow, what are the odds that your friend would randomly invite both you and George to her party?" Harry asked, obviously amazed at the coincidence. Hermione had conveniently left out the part where Grace was trying to set her up with George but George gave her a knowing smile. Ginny raised her eyebrows suspiciously at the pair, nearly making Hermione blush. She willed the heat out of her cheeks, knowing if she blushed she would give herself away. Luckily, Ginny's probing glance was broken when two young children came skipping through the kitchen door followed by Penelope and Percy.
"Ah, hello, Hermione," Percy said shaking her hand heartily. Realizing everyone was probably befuddled by his lack of surprise he explained, "Dad told me everything when we came in." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief; glad she wouldn't have to tell the story again. Penelope greeted Hermione warmly, always glad to have an extra female around the Weasley home, and introduced her children, who were entirely too well behaved for their age. When Bill and Fleur arrived a few moments later, the attention shifted from Hermione to Ginny, for whom the party was actually planned, and the group moved out to the backyard.
A few hours later a very exhausted Hermione collapsed onto the couch in the Weasley's living room. Ginny and Harry dropped, one on top of the other, onto an overstuffed chair. Ron looked around awkwardly before sitting next to Hermione on the couch. He still was uncertain how to act around her.
"It's ok, Ron," she reassured him. Not really knowing what to say to each other, they both looked across the room to where Harry and Ginny were snuggled up together, grinning madly.
"So how long have you two been…like this?" Hermione asked, suppressing a laugh.
"Oh you know, a while. I guess it just sorta happened one day," Harry said with a shrug. Grinny slapped him playfully.
"Yeah, 'one day' 3 years, 9 months, 2 weeks and 3 days ago," Ginny explained. Hermione grinned at her thinking she would get along quite well with Grace who was always ready to tell, nearly to the minute, how long she'd been with Max. Before Ginny could launch in to the very detailed account of her and Harry's romantic beginning, George appeared in the door to the living room. He lounged against the door frame admiring the scene for a moment before clearing his throat to announce his presence.
"Hermione, Fred and I were just heading back to our apartment in town. Did you want to come back to our place for the night?" He asked. Hermione's faced burned bright red, could he be more obvious? she thought.
"Um, no, I think I'm going to stay here tonight. Thanks though," she asked, trying to make herself sound quite confused by his suggestion. George shrugged and headed back to the kitchen to say his goodbyes.
"Merlin, he's possessive isn't he? Just because he happened to find you in London, he thinks he owns you or something," Ron piped up. Ginny shot him an amused look.
"You are so dense," she laughed. Hermione looked at Ginny alarmed. Of course, Ginny had known that Hermione and George were romantically involved approximately .5 seconds after she walked into the room. Assuming however, that they were keeping it secret for a reason, she'd kept her mouth shut. Still, George was doing a poor job concealing his feelings for Hermione. He had followed her around like a puppy the entire evening, pulling out chairs and fetching extra glasses of lemonade. Ginny was reminded of the way Percy had doted on Penelope when she was pregnant and for a split second feared that Hermione was in the same condition, but quickly regarded the thought. Hermione may have been glowing a little, but it certainly was not a puking-all-morning, swollen-ankles, bun-in-the-oven type of glow. Satisfied that it was only a reunited-with-long-lost-friends glow, Ginny faked a yawn and suggested going to bed. Hermione jumped at the suggestion, being quite exhausted from her emotional day and relieved that Ginny had not elaborated on her "you are so dense" comment. Harry and Ron followed tiredly up the stairs and split off at the top of the stairs as the girls headed to Ginny's room and the boys to Ron's, just like they were thirteen years old again.
A/N: Hurray! The Burrow chapter is finally up! I hope you all are as excited as I am about this. Hehe. Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and didn't mind the hugging solves everything attitude. I happened to be a great supporter of hugs. Oh, and Avanell, in response to your question: Frisco is a suburb of Dallas not far from where I live, although I definitely wish I was from San Francisco! Anyways, as always, please please read and review!