Disclaimer: Everything you recognize is JKR's!

A/N: Sorry if it took me so long to post this chapter, but my other beta-reader (Erin), didn't e-mail back my chapter, I hope she is all right, but I haven't hear from her for a long time. But I've found another beta: Mleegirl42, who has been very quick! I hope you'll like this chapter; I like it because it's funny! (Hey, I hope it will be funny!) Thank you to everybody who reviewed, because I reached 200 reviews (203!)!

To Mleegirl42: Thank you very much for beta-reading my chapter, and thank you also for my Spanish bio!

The Burrow and Back to School

"Ron!" screamed Mrs. Weasley for the fifth time that morning.

"Mum, will you please stop it? I feel a headache coming on," asked Ginny, who lay on the sofa. Her stomach was very big now: only a couple of months and another redhead would have joined the Weasley family.

"Oh sorry, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley without looking away from the stairs.

At that very moment the door of the kitchen burst open and a breathless Colin Creevey entered the Burrow.

"Ginny, love, I bought the vanilla ice-cream and the two big boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans that you asked me for and-"

But he stopped when he saw Ginny's expression.

"W-what?" he asked. Fear in his voice.

"I – didn't – ask – you – for – vanilla – ice – cream," she said slowly, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"N-no?" asked Colin taking a step towards Harry, who was passing by for a very unlucky case.

Harry knew that the situation was getting dangerous and tried to leave the room, but Colin caught hold of his arm firmly.

"Don't you dare leave me alone, Harry," he whispered into Harry's ear.

"I would prefer to fight against the Giant Squib than a pregnant woman," said Harry trying to free himself from Colin.

"Colin Creevey," said Ginny trying to sit up from the couch, but luckily her stomach was much too wide, "I asked you for chocolate ice-cream."

"Ginny, dear, it's December, it has been very difficult for me to find ice-cream and-"

But he was cut off again, this time he had to avoid a slipper that Ginny threw towards him; he hid behind Harry, and the slipper hit Harry in his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry Harry, but you shouldn't stand in the middle of the room when Colin and I are having a discussion," she said in a matter of fact voice.

"I know that," said Harry gritting his teeth.

"Give me the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Colin," she said coolly "And go out again and buy me some chocolate ice cream."

Colin cautiously handed the boxes to Ginny. She opened one and ate a sweet. Then her eyes filled with tears and she started to cry.

Colin and Harry exchanged strange looks.

"G-Ginny? What's wrong?" asked Harry.

"I ate a vanilla sweet! Look, Bertie Blott hates me too-" she said between sobs.

Colin hugged her, "Oh Ginny, nobody here hates you," he said.

"Really?" she asked, "Then why did you buy me vanilla ice-cream?"

Harry, free from Colin's grip, hurried out of the room and reached Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen, where she was washing the dishes.

"Oh Harry, dear," she said when she noticed his presence, "Is Ron alright? He didn't have dinner yesterday evening and now it's almost lunch time, and I know that he likes to stay in bed late, but he usually never misses breakfast."

"Well, Mrs. Weasley, he is just a bit shocked. And so am I," he answered.

Harry had spent all of the previous evening telling the whole Weasley family about what had happened at the Leaky Cauldron and what Hermione had told them. Everybody but the children had seemed shocked. Alex and Mark had found it quite funny and Mrs. Weasley had burst into tears at the end.

"Is there anything we can do to convince Hermione to stay with Ron?" she asked, a tear escaping her cheek.

"No," said Harry "I don't think that anybody here can do anything except Ron."

"But he won't do anything if he stays in bed all the day. I'm going to wake him up now," she said sharply and headed towards the stairs.

"Ronald Weasley! Come here now or I'll bring you downstairs by your ears!" she cried.

A grunt came from upstairs.

"Hem, Mrs. Weasley? Maybe I should talk to him-" said Harry.

"What? Oh, sure Harry dear. And if nothing works tell him that I'm going to cook chicken and French fries," she said leaving for the kitchen.

Harry took a deep breath and started to climb the stairs.

He reached Ron's bedroom and knocked once, but nobody answered. He knocked twice, and he heard another grunt.

"Ron?" he asked, "Can I come in?"

"No," was Ron's answer.

Harry sighed and opened the door.

The bedroom was in complete darkness, Ron was lying in his bed, the sheets completely covered his body and his head was under the pillow.

"Oh, sorry," came his voice from under the pillow, "I must have said 'Yes,' I wanted to say 'No, you can't enter'."

"Are you going to stay in bed until we have to come back to Hogwarts?"

"No, just until my last day."

"Well, your last day could come quite early if you don't go downstairs quickly. Your mum thinks that you should convince Hermione to use magic again and live with you here at the Burrow."

"But nobody, not even me, can convince Hermione."

"I don't think so."

Ron's head rose from under the pillow.

"You didn't hear her say what she said," he said bitterly.

"Yeah, but you didn't hear your daughter."

Ron, like the last time, shuddered when he heard the word 'daughter'.

"No I didn't hear her, what did she say?"

"She said that she wants to live with her parents, both parents, in the same house. And she wants a dog."

"Really?"

"Yeah, well, maybe I was the one who wants a dog. But I don't want to live in the same house with both you and Hermione."

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Why? Well, because you two used to fight all the time."

Ron smiled weakly, but his smile faded away very quickly.

"I don't really know what to do," he said watching the ceiling.

"Well, even if you did know what to do, you can't do it if you stay in your bed. So why don't you begin with getting up and having some breakfast? No wait," he added watching the clock "I mean some lunch. Your mum is going to prepare chicken and French fries."

Ron suddenly sat up, "Chicken and French fries? Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked dressing quickly.

"Because I thought you preferred talking about Hermione and Lilian over chicken and French fries," he said bemused.

"What? Oh, of course, but I haven't eaten since yesterday and you know how much I love chicken and French fries," he answered, searching for a t-shirt under a pile of clothes in the corner.

Harry sighed but smiled.

Ron hurried out of the bedroom and stepped on to the stairs, leaving Harry in the bedroom with an odd expression.

'There's something I had to tell him, but I can't remember what it was-' he thought.

Then a scream and someone cried, "You are the most horrible git I have ever seen, Ron, how could you have eaten all my vanilla ice-cream?"

And then someone else answered, "You have never liked vanilla ice-cream, Ginny!"

'Oh yeah,' thought Harry 'I should have told him not to go in the living room – hey, how can he have already eaten all the vanilla ice-cream!'

Ten days after they were departing for school.

The first day of school Ron was ready to go at about 6 a.m. because he wanted to meet Hermione.

Naturally Alex, Mark, and especially Harry, who was eating an extremely delicious bowl of chocolate ice cream, weren't so keen on leaving the house at 6 a.m., they wanted to leave just in time to catch the train, like every year.

"If we don't leave now, Alex Weasley, your highest mark in Transfiguration will be T!" screamed Ron at his nephew in the kitchen.

"T?" asked Alex.

"Troll," said Ron grinning.

"It's not fair! Harry, tell him that it isn't fair!" cried Alex.

"Ron it's not fair," said Harry sleepily not even listening to them.

"What's happening here?"

Everybody turned very slowly his head in the door direction.

Ginny was standing there, "Why are you making all this noise at 6 in the morning?" she asked.

Alex ran towards his aunt, "Aunt Ginny, Uncle Ron is blackmailing me just because I don't wanna go to King's Cross at dawn," he said and then hid behind Ginny.

"Is that true, Ron?" she asked.

Alex was glaring at Ron from behind his aunt.

"I just wanted to see if I could meet Hermione," he said in a very childish way.

Ginny smiled "Aww, Ron that's so cute," she said in a dreamy voice while Ron glared to Alex, "But," Ginny continued and this time her voice was back to normal "Hermione won't be at King's Cross at 6 a.m. At least, if what Harry told me is true, I don't think you'll find her at King's Cross."

"What? Why? How do you know?" he asked at once.

"Because if I wanted to avoid somebody I wouldn't go in a place where I'm sure I would find him."

Ron couldn't find anything against this fact. So he just stayed in the middle of the kitchen.

"Plus I think that Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Rose and everybody else wants to say goodbye to Alex and Mark, and also to you."

"Yeah, you are right," he said in a sappy voice.

Ginny smiled, "Well, since I'm here and I'm a little hungry too since I haven't eaten in 2 hours," she added when they jerked their heads in her direction, "I think I'll finish my chocolate ice-cream."

Harry froze. She wanted to finish the chocolate ice cream, the wonderful chocolate ice cream that he found at the bottom of the fridge and that he was actually eating.

When Ginny spotted Harry's face covered in chocolate ice cream, she let out a shriek and in about 20 seconds all the Weasleys were in the kitchen wondering what on Earth made Ginny scream so loud.

After a quarter of an hour Alex, Mark and Harry were begging Ron to leave.

Ginny was right, Hermione didn't show up at King's Cross.

However, Ron spotted Mrs. Granger. She was accompanying Lilian at Platform 9 ¾. He tried to make his way towards them between the crowds, but there was a group of Japanese tourists that didn't let him pass.

Lilian was wearing a long coat with her robes under it. She seemed very busy with her cat: Kirara was very nervous and her bright green eyes were on a mouse in a boy's pocket.

"No, not another one-" Ron could hear Lilian say.

"Lilian dear, look at the clock, it's almost time, you should already be on the train, hurry up," Mrs. Granger said.

"Yeah, grandma, see you at Easter break then," she said hugging Mrs. Granger. "And tell mom that I'll miss her," she added fighting back the tears.

"She'll miss you too, darling."

Lilian let go her grandmother and waved to her before passing through the wall between platform 9 and 10.

Mrs. Granger was watching her disappear in the wall with tears in her eyes, when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"She's right on time for the train, not really late, like her father, and not really early, like her mother," said Mrs. Granger without looking at him; she knew perfectly well that the hand was Ron's.

"How did you know that I was always late for the train?" asked Ron.

"Hermione always told me everything about you," she said smiling.

They were still looking at the wall were Lilian disappeared.

"How is she?" asked Ron.

"Not too well," said Mrs. Granger, "I think that the cancer is consuming her."

Consuming her? No, not my love.

"Mrs. Granger?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Where has the cancer affected her?"

"Oh, she didn't tell you?" she asked a little bit surprised.

"No."

"Her brain, dear. She has lots of headaches."

Her brain. The most brilliant person that he had ever known was going to die because her brain was ill.

"Ron, please, cure her with magic," asked Mrs. Granger with her eyes filled with tears.

"Hermione is right, Mrs. Granger, only the Dark Arts can save her life," he said quietly.

Mrs. Granger started to walk away.

"And I swear," He said turning to her, "I swear, that I'll learn how to use them and I'll save her."

Mrs. Granger smiled and walked towards the exit. Naturally she didn't understand how dangerous the Dark Arts could be.

Ron stood in the middle of the station, thousands of thoughts buzzing in his head. How could he keep his promise?

Who could teach him the Dark Arts?

Harry?

Dumbledore?

Snape!