Chapter 2
Ron Apparated back to his rather small apartment in London where he had lived ever since the end of the Second War. A barn owl with a copy of The Evening Prophet flew through the window and landed on the kitchen bench, waiting expectantly for Ron to pay him 5 Knuts. A Purple Cactus that Neville Longbottom had given Ron for his birthday was now trying to bludgeon poor old Pigwidgeon with its spikes.
Ron paid the Evening Prophet-bearing owl its well earned 5 Knuts. He then moved over to where the poor, freshly bludgeoned Pigwidgeon lay, motionless. Ron picked up the Purple Cactus and reprimanded it for waging warfare with ageing, defenseless Pig. "What have I told you about fighting?" Ron said between hitting the now wincing Cactus with a rolled up copy of The Evening Prophet. "Pig's a poor old helpless owl who doesn't need to lose any more feathers because you've been taking the mickey out of him." He then put Pig in his cage, topped up his water container and left the unconscious Scops owl to be. He always came round pretty soon after being beaten up by the Purple Cactus; Ron was not too concerned about Pig.
Ron Weasley hadn't moved on from Harry and Ginny's deaths as well as the rest of his friends and family had. Ron felt, after they had died, that there was not much point really to living his life to the full, like he once did. Before Ginny and Harry had died, Ron had dreams of becoming an Auror and moving into his own place. But all of those dreams evaporated with his sister and best friend. He had lost interest in becoming an Auror after their deaths – he had lost interest in many other things too, such as Quidditch. Ron used to love going to Quidditch matches. He never went now though because Ginny and Harry were his two favourite people to go to Quidditch matches with. Unlike Hermione, they understood the game. These days though, Ron couldn't bear seeing so much as a Golden Snitch, as it reminded him of Harry, and Ginny too. However, after going to the Hogwarts Cemetery just then, something had hit Ron. A ray of hope and happiness had struck him, and somehow Ron felt a bit like he used to, when Harry and Ginny were alive. Rather than trying to forget, he had remembered some of those extremely happy times at Hogwarts and it made him, overall, feel better.
Ron moved over to the fireplace, after placing the now pierced with holes Evening Prophet on the kitchen bench. He threw his hand into a flower pot on the mantel piece. He showered the inside of the fireplace enthusiastically with probably a little more Floo Powder than he needed, and stuck his head in. He yelled "5 Wilhelmina Way". His head span nauseatingly and he felt like it would fall off. Although Ron had done this many times before, it didn't make the experience any more comfortable. After a moment the spinning stopped and a leg of Hermione's long kitchen table came into focus. "Hello, Hermione! It's me, Ron!" he shouted to the dining room at large. Ron heard footsteps from somewhere to his right before Hermione appeared from around the corner of the fireplace. A happy smile broke out on her face. "Hi Ron. How are you?" she asked, as she dropped to her knees to be level with Ron. "Alright thanks" replied Ron, hurriedly. And he plunged straight into his explanation of how he had just been at the Hogwarts Cemetery and would like to visit Luna. "So…would you like to come with me?" Ron finished.
"Sure" answered Hermione. "When shall we go?"
"How about tomorrow morning, it's getting a bit late now. How does 10 am at my place sound? And then we can go together to Luna's."
"Alright, that sounds good. See you round, then."
"Yep, see you tomorrow." Ron said, before pulling his head out of the fireplace.
Ron hadn't slept as well as he did last night in ages. When he did finally wake up, he turned over to look at the clock on his bedside table, but it looked like a blur because he had just woken up. He rubbed his eyes a bit and looked at it again. 9:30am, it read. Ron swore. He had told Hermione to get to his place at 10am. He got out of bed still rubbing his eyes and swearing. He picked up some clothes off the floor and went and had a very quick shower. He had barely finished brushing his teeth and hair when Ron heard Hermione arrive. She had Apparated to his front door and was just knocking on it then.
Ron went over to the door and opened it. Hermione smiled and said hello. "Hi." Ron said back, taking her grey travelling cloak and placing it on the hat stand. "How are you?"
"Not bad, not bad. You?"
"I'm good too, thanks" replied Ron. "Well, shall we get going, then?"
"Alright" replied Hermione. There was a moment there where Ron stared at Hermione blankly for a moment, and Hermione stared back at him too. After a moment, Ron realized what he was doing and led the way to the fireplace. "Um" Ron began awkwardly to his hearthrug by the fireplace, "I don't actually know where Luna lives." He chanced a glance at Hermione's face. "I'm hoping you do." To Ron's surprise and relief, Hermione simply laughed, in a sort of slightly amused way. "Yes, I do know where she lives" answered Hermione, still smiling, a little wryly. "Sometimes I do wonder about you, Ron." Ron paused for a moment, trying to work out what Hermione meant by that. Hermione picked up Ron's flowerpot of Floo Powder and offered to him to take some. Ron was about to put his hand in there until he said "Maybe you should go first."
"Oh, ok." Hermione stuck her hand in the flowerpot and took out a pinch of Floo Powder. She threw in the pinch of Powder carefully. Hermione then stepped into the emerald green flames and said firmly and clearly "The Elms." After Hermione had spun out of site, Ron followed her and did just as she had done.