Disclaimer: I don't own it. Period. The goddess of writing that is J.K Rowling does.
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry about the wait… AGAIN! I promise that I'll try to update more often, again! But, let me tell you, it's not that easy! Anyway, here it is!
Updated: Saturday, December 3, 2005
Chapter Nine: Tears and Kisses
All through that night, Ginny held Hermione while she cried and Harry and Ron sat around, trying to comfort their distraught friend. All thoughts of telling Ron the news were forgotten. Finally, around 3:00 in the morning, Hermione and Ginny, their eyes swollen and red from crying got up and wearily climbed the staircase to their dorms. Harry and Ron too left the common room, leaving it empty.
The next morning, as the quartet made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast, a small boy ran to meet them at the bottom of the Grand Staircase.
"Miss Hermione Granger? Professor Dumbledore would like to see you in his office" the boy gasped as he knelt over trying to catch his breath. He looked up, saw the older students watching him and blushed a deep shade of red.
"Thank you, Lucas, was it?" Hermione said kindly and smiled at the scared child. Lucas nodded and ran off, eager to get away from the teens.
"Do you want me to come with you 'Mione?" Ginny asked carefully. She didn't want to set Hermione off in tears again.
"No, it's alright, thanks. I'll see you lot later." Hermione smiled weakly and turned to go up the stairs. She came to the statue that hid Dumbledore's office entrance from view and muttered the password, 'mango pops'. The statue came to life, and sprang aside, revealing a moving spiral staircase. The brunette stepped on and rode to the top. Before she could knock on the door, it was flung wide open and Hermione was enveloped in a tight hug.
"Darling, oh, darling! It was horrible! So very horrible! I went and… and saw him there, like he was sleeping. Only, I knew he wasn't. I knew he was dead, I just knew it! Oh, 'Mione, what am I going to do without him? What are we going to do? What am I going to tell the family? And our friends?" Hermione's mother was an awful mess. Slowly, Hermione pried herself away from her mother and led the older woman to an armchair near the fire. Dumbledore watched this scene calmly, but his eyes were missing the twinkle they usually held. Replacing the twinkle was sadness so deep that it seemed to be filling the room. The old man waited until the widow had calmed down before he spoke.
"Mrs. Granger, I offer my condolences and I deeply hurt for you and your family at this time. I will, of course, be only too happy to grant Hermione leave for her father's funeral, if that is what you wish. I only have one thing to ask you though, and I suggest very strongly that you comply." At this he looked up from the fire and into the two women's eyes. "You are both in grave danger, as you may have already guessed. Voldemort does not like to leave a job half done. I assume that he will try to pick up where he left off. If you wish, we can hide you and your daughter in ways that you would never have thought possible." Hermione's mother looked from her daughter to the headmaster nervously. "Please, if not for you safety, but for Hermione's." At this, Dumbledore looked intently at the teenager in question.
"Okay. Okay, I'll do it. Just tell me how." Hermione's mother had a hard look on her face. One that looked like it was not to be messed with.
"We will perform the Fidelus Charm. You need to choose a Secret Keeper, and anyone who has any bad intentions toward you will not be able to find you place of dwelling without the Secret Keeper telling them. If you cannot think of someone that you would trust with your lives, I volunteer myself." Mrs. Granger smiled and was about to accept Dumbledore's offer when Hermione interrupted.
"No! Erm, no offence, Professor, but I want Harry to be our Secret Keeper. I know that he would rather die than give my safety up. Please, Mum?" She added after seeing the look on her mother's face.
"Dear, I'm not too sure that I feel safe putting our lives in the hands of a seventeen year old boy." Mrs. Granger said uncertainly.
"Mum, my life, the lives of everybody in the wizarding world, is in Harry's hands already! I trust him completely." Hermione answered, angrily. Mrs. Granger looked to Dumbledore for advice and was shocked to see the old wizard smiling.
"Miss Granger is correct, Mrs. Granger. The fate of the wizarding world already rests on Harry's shoulders. He would never tell his secret." Seeing that Dumbledore believed in the young man, Mrs. Granger agreed and Harry was called upon.
After the charm was performed, Harry and Dumbledore left, allowing Hermione and her mother to spend a few moments together before the latter had to leave.
"Mum, I'm so sorry. So very sorry." Hermione cried tearfully.
"Darling, it wasn't your fault. Don't you go around thinking that this whole mess was your doing, because it was not. Do you understand me?" The woman stared intently into her daughter's eyes, willing the pain to go away. Hermione nodded and tried to smile, failing miserably.
"What are you going to tell everybody? What are you going to tell Grandma Granger and the rest of the family?" Hermione suddenly asked, remembering the question that her mother had posed earlier.
"I don't know, dear. I just don't know." Mrs. Granger sighed heavily. The two women sat thinking for quite some time, both with tears pooling in their eyes and streaming down their faces. Suddenly Hermione sat up a little straighter, a familiar gleam appearing in her eyes. "'Moine, I know that look in your eyes. What are you thinking?" The older woman was suddenly suspicious.
"I know what we can do. We can ask Dumbledore if he would pose as a doctor and tell the family that Daddy died of 'natural causes' It would work Mum." Hermione reached out and grabbed her mother's hands. Mrs. Granger nodded and smiled sadly at her daughter.
"You are so much like your father, did you know that?" Hermione looked up, shocked. "Yes, you get your brains and you wit and that confident air that you have from him. You also have his hair. Luckily though, you got my eyes" She fingered the young woman's hair, smiled and looked into her eyes. The two sat that way- hand in hand, smiling sadly at one another- until Dumbledore returned. The two women and Dumbledore discussed Hermione's idea, deciding that it was a good one. Plans made, Mrs. Granger and Dumbledore said their farewells and the old man saw the two younger women out of his office. After seeing her mother to Hogsmeade as she boarded the Hogwarts Express, Hermione Granger warily climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room. She gave the password to the Fat Lady and climbed the hole, eager to fall into a chair and sleep. She was surprised to see that the Common Room was empty, save for three people. Hermione looked at her watch and saw that it was just after 3 in the morning. She had spent all day and all night in Dumbledore's office with her mother. She hadn't even realized that time had passed so quickly. Then she remembered that the next day was a school day, and her eyes filled with tears as she looked at the raven haired boy and the two red-headed figures waiting patiently for her return. "Erm, evening guys." she said quietly. The three teens whipped around, and smiled thinly at the bushy-haired girl in front of them.
"Oh 'Moine, how're you doing?" Ginny asked, taking Hermione in her arms.
"I'm okay. Terribly shocked, though." She answered through the fabric of Ginny's robes. The red-haired girl guided the elder to a couch and gently forced her to take a seat. Hermione promptly started to sob into Ginny's shoulder. Ron and Harry looked on, unsure of what to do. It pained them both to see their friend in this state, but they didn't know how to help. Suddenly, Ron couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want to see the pain in Hermione's eyes anymore, so he did the only thing he could think of doing. He leaped onto the couch, pushed Ginny aside and took the crying girl in his arms. He held her face in his hands and kissed her soundly on the lips. Harry and Ginny, shocked at the scene unfolding before them, looked on in awe.
A/N: This ending is horrid, but I could not think of a proper one and I wanted to get this chapter posted, just to say that I did. So here it is and please READ AND REVIEW. 'Cause, you guys know that I love it when you do. LOL.
Peace,
Melissa