Hermione would have liked to stay longer but Ron had told it was better if they left. He stayed a little longer to "savour the moment", as he had put it. With sore lips from kissing Ron (it sounded weird in her mind, yet so perfect) Hermione walked alone to the Burrow. She was smiling and had a stomach full of butterflies. She didn't notice that she walked right into Ginny.
"Oh, sorry," came Hermione's immediate reaction, unable to hide the cheerfulness in her voice.
"Where have you been?" Ginny asked irritably. "I came looking for you. Where were you?"
"I was just outside walking," Hermione replied defensively, the feeling in her stomach fading at Ginny's angry tone.
"You know we are not allowed to walk outside alone at night," Ginny said in a voice that could have belonged to a furious Mrs. Weasley. "It's dangerous." Hermione knew that. She thought Ginny's anger wasn't justified. She and Ron were just outside looking at the stars (snogging was beside the point) and there are protective charms around the Burrow, Hermione thought but did not say anything to Ginny and only tried to look as unbothered by Ginny's words as possible. She did not want to fight with Ginny at this hour.
"I'll just go to bed then," Hermione said and walked past Ginny and up the stairs to their room. Dreams already occupied Hermione's mind when Ginny crawled into bed.
Ginny's bad mood stayed until morning and to avoid another clash with a friend she stayed alone in her and Hermione's room and tried to sleep, but it seemed like an impossible thing to do. Fleur's relatives were furious at the Weasley family. They were certain it was Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's fault that Bill had abandoned Fleur. Ginny had woken up to her mum's voice shouting "Now, Mrs. Delacour! No need to start a fire!" When she heard her and Fleur's parents thundering up and down the stairs outside Ginny's room for the fifth time, Ginny got up, opened the door, pointed her wand at her and Fleur's parents who were yelling loudly in french at Mrs. Weasley in the hallway. Nobody noticed Ginny until she yelled "Silencio!" and closed to the door to the confused looking parents and went back to bed.
Ginny wasn't able to sleep for long. Soon an owl tapped on her window, with the morning's Daily Prophet between its claws. Ginny tried to ignore the tapping as long as she could. Why can't it go and tap on someone else's window, someone who is not sleeping? Ginny thought, but when she realised the owl wouldn't go away, she got up from her bed. As she dragged herself to the window she mumbled "disturb-Ginny's-sleep-day, is it now?". Ginny opened the window and the owl dropped the paper on the floor. It flew around in the room for a while as Ginny looked for knuts to give the owl.
"There," Ginny said and gave the owl 7 knuts. "Now leave." The owl flew happily out of the window. Ginny glanced quickly at the headline before throwing the paper to the floor, but something on the front page caught Ginny's eye and she lifted the paper off the floor. "Muggle wanders into Diagon Alley" was the headline. She spread the paper on her bed and began to read the article. "Yesterday evening a muggle was found wandering on Diagon Alley. The 35-year-old muggle man claims that he was on a walk when suddenly Diagon Alley appeared in front of him. The ministry…"
Downstairs Ron and Harry were eating breakfast. Most of the wedding guest had already left and there was tons of uneaten wedding food to digest. Ron put a cream filled finger in his mouth, while Harry was busy with a bowl full of grey cookies.
"I think the cake is my favourite," Ron said, now taking a real bite out of the cake.
"I like these little cookies. I don't know what they are but they taste really good," Harry said with mouth full.
"Honestly you too," Hermione said as she entered the kitchen. Hermione felt Ron's eye follow her as she walked through the kitchen and sat down
"Sleep well?" he asked smiling.
"Oh, yes," Hermione replied and smiled back. Ron and Hermione continued to goggle and Harry only rolled his eyes. Harry saw that Hermione had already packed her books. They lay in a corner in the kitchen, stapled on each other, thick and old. Hermione had brought with her as many books she could carry from Hogwarts that would be of help to Harry to defeat Voldemort. Ever since he found out about the prophecy, and even before that, he had known that in the end it would be between him and Voldemort, but it had never felt as real as it did now. He wasn't scared. He had already faced Voldemort and many other dangers during his years at Hogwarts, but something bothered him. What was it?
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by Fleur's dad, who came down the stairs to the kitchen carrying a large trunk, followed by Fleur's mum. As they passed Harry, Ron and Hermione in the kitchen, they gave them a cold look before walking out the door and slamming the door as loudly as they could.
"I don't understand how Bill could just leave like that. Poor Fleur," Hermione said sadly.
"He left a note," Ron said at which Hermione scoffed. "He wrote and said he wasn't ready and needed some time to think about what he wants."
"To be honest, I think they move a little too fast, but if he really wants Fleur they'll get back together," Harry said and took another cookie from the bowl in front of him.
"You don't understand any of this. There's nothing to think about any more. He already made a choice, and it wasn't Fleur. Being abandoned on your wedding day is the worst..." Hermione suddenly stopped and stood up. She mumbled something like "forgot a thing" before leaving the table. Ron and Harry looked at each other quizzically.
"No wonder we don't understand. They don't even finish their sentences and just leave in the middle of a conversation," Ron said and took one of the grey cookies still on the table. He handed one to Harry who took it and placed it in his mouth.
A minute later Hermione came back to the kitchen, looking excited. "I've been working on it for months, but I haven't had the chance to give this to you." Hermione was held out a gleaming silver medal on a string.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"It's a Contego Charm," Hermione said in a proud voice. "I was flipping through some books at the library one day and I found out that there is actually a way to protect yourself from the Unforgivable Curses, any curse. However, it doesn't protect you one hundred percent, more like one percent. What I did was, concentrate the magic into one small spot to make it extra powerful. See, you wear this medal and if someone, say tries to Avada Kedavra you and the curse hits this medal, then it will stop the curse from hitting you, but if the curse hits you somewhere else, well then you are… dead."
"Cheerful," Ron said sarcastically.
Harry took the medal and examined it. It was very thin and didn't cover much skin if Harry wore it. Harry stroke the smooth surface of the medal with his thumb. "Thanks, Hermione. It's better than no protection at all."
"I thought so," Hermione said smiling.
Harry put the medal around his neck and inside his shirt. He thought that he would have to have to drink an extra large bottle of Felix Felicis if a killing curse would hit him right where medal was.
After breakfast the trio went to their rooms to pack. They were leaving today to go north. Hermione had done some research and found that the Black family had been in possession of a cottage in Scotland which now belonged to Harry. Now that Hogwarts was closed, Harry needed a place to prepare for his journey to destroy the Horcruxes and then Voldemort. They had decided that Sirius's cottage would be their headquarters.
Hermione and Ron had already finished packing and were waiting for him in the kitchen. Harry was alone in Ron's room. He only had a couple of potions bottles to pack, that Hermione had bought from Diagon Alley before she and Ron went to see him at Privet Drive, and he was ready to go. He tried different ways to put the bottles in the trunk, without them smashing on the way to the cottage.
When Harry finally finished putting the bottles neatly he felt someone else's presence in the room. He turned around and saw Ginny standing in the doorway.
"Harry, I know you said I can't come," Ginny said and looked at Harry. "I want to help. I want to do something, and not just sit here at the Burrow doing nothing. I want to come with you."
"Like hell you will!", came Ron's voice from the hallway before Harry could reply. This did not improve Ginny's mood. Her eyes flattered dangerously at Ron and Harry stepped back knowing what was coming.
"Ron, don't tell me what to do!" Ginny yelled. Harry thought he may have imagined it, but it looked like Ginny's hair stood up like a mad scientist's
"Not in the words that Ron put it, but I think if you stayed here at the Burrow," Harry said, carefully choosing his words.
"Do you think I can't handle it?" Ginny replied with her voice raising. "I was with you at the Department of Mysteries."
"Maybe I'm saying that you can't handle it," Harry said, but he really didn't think that Ginny couldn't handle it. He knew she could, but he couldn't put her in danger. Ginny's reaction proved that this was not the right move from Harry. There was a flash of anger in Ginny's eyes.
"I need to be alone," Ginny said before running out of the room. Harry followed her. Ginny was ran faster than Harry thought and he had to run as fast as he could to catch up with her.
"Ginny, wait!" Harry shouted but she was only deaf to his shouts. Harry caught Ginny's hand and she swung around.
"I said leave me alone!" Ginny shouted trying to loosen herself from Harry's grip. Furious Ginny saw no other option than to pull her wand.
"Let me go," she said pointing the wand at Harry. "Don't think I won't use the Bat-Boogey Hex on you."
Harry let go of Ginny's arm. "I'll leave you alone," he said quietly before walking away.