A/N: I know this is a week later than it should have been and I'm really sorry, but I have a LEGIT excuse. I caught a really unhappy virus that decided to shut down my system and I spent most of the past week in the hospital. Good thing I've been pre-writing! I have yet to really edit this, but I promise to go back and do so later this week. I'm very busy trying to catch up on a missed week of work, but I can give you the next chapter right now! Woohoo!

But first, a few words for my lovely reviewers:

IsabellaPaige- Yes, something big happened. Isn't it exciting? I'm sorry to say that it's not covered in this chapter, but you'll get more hints in the next chapter! Keep reading and all the answers will come to you!

Cappygal116- I'll admit, the poem was a little cheesy. Perhaps I won't ask for reviews so oddly next time. The plot is just getting started, so hopefully you'll be able to get into it more and more as the story goes on. Be sure to tell me what you think of it!

Quidditch7- I'm so glad you like the story so far! I definitely use the Harry/Ginny theme a bit in all my stories, and who knows, maybe it will progress throughout the story. Would you like that? I'm glad you liked the fairy! I try to use small details to keep everyone interested. Lavender's incident will definitely cause her to get jumpy soon, but her relationship will Seamus with be stable as ever.

Violet Snicket- You're Brazilian? I would have never guessed! You're English in very good! I'm actually half Portuguese myself(my dad immigrated to the US when he was very young), though I know the cultures aren't the same at all besides the similar language. I'm sorry to keep you waiting for this chapter. I'm glad you liked the kind of girls versus boys set-up I had in the last chapter though!

The End of a New Life by MyKonstantine.

Chapter 4: Reactions and Missing in Action

A white fiber substance was growing out of Ginny Weasley's mouth at a rapid pace. "George! If you keep putting that cotton mouth potion in my mashed potatoes, I am going to hex you to oblivion!"

There was never a dull moment at the Weasley home. Perhaps that's why Hermione was always a bit early when Mrs. Weasley invited her to dinner with Harry, Ron and the rest of the family.

"Sorry, Ginny." George mumbled through a bite of his pot roast. He flicked his wand and the cotton in Ginny's mouth vanished. "That plate was meant for Ron. Mum gave out the plates in the wrong order."

Ron's jaw hung low despite the fact that it was still filled with his own mashed potatoes.

Molly Weasley eyed her son as if he were a felon. "It's my fault that you put cotton mouth potion is my mashed potatoes? If that's the case, perhaps I shouldn't have you over for dinner anymore!"

"Mum!"

"No, George!" Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Don't you talk back to me! I should give you the potatoes that you gave Ginny and then wash your mouth out with Pepper-up potion!"

Fred cringed in the seat next to George. "That would be painful."

Hermione smirked as she ate her corn. She couldn't get such quality entertainment while eating at home or with her family. She couldn't get a quality home cooked meal either.

"So how is everyone? How's work?" Arthur Weasley paused for a moment. He looked around the table, observing every person. Hermione felt a little awkward when he turned to her. "I'm asking you all about work. I feel so old."

"You are old, dad."

Mr. Weasley wiped at his spectacles. "Thank you, Ronald."

"That's no way to answer your father's question!" Mrs. Weasley pointed out.

Ron shrugged. "Work is just work. Broom testing isn't all that exciting. You just fly in simple patterns and hope nothing bad happens."

"Bad?" Ginny raised an eyebrow. "You mean like the day you tested a malfunctioning broom and almost broke your neck?"

"Well someone's got to do it. Better me than some little boy who got a bad broom for his birthday. Plus, Firebolt pays me a decent salary. It's worth the risks."

"Let's not argue about Ron's job again." Fred grunted. "Harry, how's Gringotts?"

"It's been going well. I've been working overtime because another cursebreaker has a bad bout of the flu, but work's been easy lately." Harry stabbed at a piece of meat and shoved it in his mouth. Work was never his favorite subject.

"What about you, Hermione? What's been new?"

"I've been taking a lot of time off work, actually." Hermione admitted. "I'm already ahead of schedule on the Advanced Transfiguration book I'm writing. It should be easy to meet my deadline."

"At the wedding, I heard McGonagall tell you to send her a copy when you're done." Ginny smiled. "I bet your book will replace the old NEWT level books. Those were rubbish."

"I don't know about that." Hermione blushed a bit. She would love to have her book used to educate children at Hogwarts, but she couldn't get her hopes up. It was possible that McGonagall wouldn't like her book at all.

"And what about.. other things?" Harry asked, trying not to be too nosy. Hermione had kept her crusade against the Ministry quiet. She certainly didn't want the same time of reaction she had gotten from SPEW.

Hermione nodded her head to show Harry that he wasn't offending her. "I've got a meeting with the governors in three weeks, and I finally got the date of the deciding appeal with the Wizengamot."

"When is it?" Ron's ears perked up in curiosity.

"In three months and four days." Hermione read off her mental calendar. It felt to her like three months and four days was simply not enough time to prepare.

"Three months?" Ron cried out. "But that's too late! The law affects you in a little more than two months!"

Everyone at the table grew very edgy. They knew that discussing Hermione's 'situation' certainly put them on thin ice. A massive conflict was bound to break out if they tried to intervene in the words Ron and Hermione were exchanging. All they could do was look away, sip their pumpkin juice, and breathe normally.

"I know, Ron! I'm not just doing this for me!" Hermione screeched. "I have to sacrifice my own well-bring in order to help those who still have time! If you weren't so selfish, you would understand that!"

"Selfish?" Ron looked absolutely appalled by the accusation. "I'm selfish because I don't think it's fair that you have to marry someone against your will and the others will get off without a hitch? Oh yes, I see exactly what you mean!"

"Who said I'd be marrying against my will?"

Now even Ron grew silent. He sat back with his arms crossed and his mouth hanging open, processing what Hermione had just said. Suddenly his face turned very grim.

"So you already think you've found someone, have you?" Ron spoke in a much softer, firmer voice now. "Who is it, then?"

"It's none of your business!" Hermione spat at him. "If I wanted people to know, I would have told them already!"

Hermione couldn't believe she had just said that. Surely the entire population of the room would find that offensive on some level, because they were all people that she generally confided in. They had been through so much together, but she couldn't even tell them something as simple as who she was interested in.

Harry coughed quickly. Fred whistled to himself while George continuously kicked the leg of the table. Molly Weasley's eyes were darting all around the room, but her husband was staring straight down at his empty plate.

Ginny was the first to move. "Who's up for dessert?"

As she hurried to the counter, Hermione should up from her chair. "Thank you Ginny, but I must be getting home. I need to focus some attention on my writing now before these upcoming busy weeks." The whole table knew it was a lie. Hermione knew it was a lie. Nobody tried to argue it. "Mrs. Weasley, thank you for another amazing dinner."

"You're welcome, dear." Mrs. Weasley quietly mumbled back in a voice that was very unlike her own. "Come visit if you'd ever like to have a chat."

Hermione walked toward the fireplace in the Weasleys' parlor. She was just too stressed to operate. Her eyes stung and every bone in her body seemed to resist movement. Why did she say that?

She could here another racket in the background as Ron stormed around the kitchen, slamming his plate into the sink and apparating with a familiar popping noise.

"She's bluffing, you know." Hermione could hear Ginny say from the kitchen. "There's no way she wouldn't tell us. She just said it to get to Ron, of course."

"We thought that Hermione was bluffing my fourth year too." Harry spoke up. His voice wasn't nearly as confident. The tone was actually quite perplexed. "Then she showed up at the Yule Ball with an international quidditch star."

Hermione couldn't bare to hear it anymore. She threw the floo powder into the fire with such rage that half the powder hit the back of the fireplace rather than the flames. Still, the fire whipped into an emerald green color and Hermione entered.

Coughing a bit at the other end, Hermione stumbled toward her study room. It was there that she did all her research and writing for her books. She needed something to get her mind off of the horror story that had just unfolded in The Burrow's kitchen, and work always seemed to do the trick.

She cracked open her old Transfiguration book, followed by a fresh copy of her latest study on the effects of Transfiguration on blast-ended skrewts. A fresh piece of parchment and a dictating quill were exacted from her desk draw.

She was feeling a bit calmer already. Ron would get over it. Nobody else in the room seemed to care.

"Hermione? Are you in here?" A voice belted out from a distant room. "HERMIONE!"

There went the nice, calm feelings.

Hermione stormed out of her study. She couldn't quite make out the voice of the wizard in her house, but she was sure it was Harry trying to make her apologize or Ron trying to pick another fight. Bloody hell!

"Look," Hermione began as she walked into her parlor. "I didn't mean to offend anyone but he had no right to-"

"Offend me? Hermione, what are you talking about?"

The head in the fireplace belonged to neither Harry nor Ron. This face was a bit chubbier with wide eyes almost completely covered by matted brown hair.

"Neville!" Hermione was a bit shocked and a bit more confused. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect you."

"It doesn't matter." Neville muttered off quickly. "You need to get over to my flat. It's an emergency."

Hermione clutched at her wand. "An emergency? What happened?"

"I'll explain it to everyone once you're all here. Harry, Ron, and Ginny will be here as soon as they can get Ron to come out of his old bedroom. I dunno why he'd hole himself up in there."

Hermione's stomach dropped. Of course she had to piss off Ron just before an emergency situation!

She shook it off as best she could. "Well, Ron is a stubborn arse."

"Oh no!" Neville groaned. "Are you two at it again? He'll never leave that room!"

As if he had heard his cue, Ron's voice rang through the flat. "Hey Hermione! Hermione, where are you?"

"He apparated into my bedroom!" Hermione was completely taken aback. "Why that little git!"

Neville shook his head. "I'll come in and talk to him." Neville jerked forward, but never completely entered the room. "Oh hell, my foot's stuck on the fireplace gate. Could you give me a tug?"

Hermione could hear Ron's footsteps steadily getting closer. It would be better if Neville dealt with Ron right now.

She reached toward the fireplace and grasped Neville's hands. "I'll pull on three."

Ron was seconds away now.

"One.."

"Hermione, forget about dinner." Ron called out from the bottom of the stairs.

"Two.."

"Something's happened!"

"Three!"

Hermione yanked Neville forward with such force that he came right at her. He managed to land one foot on the ground, but the other sent him off-balance and he fell directly on top of Hermione, one of his shoes still stuck in his fireplace.

Ron rounded the corner. "I know you're mad, but c'mon! This is an emer-"

Ron's eyes feel upon the scene in front of him. Hermione and Neville were rolling around on the floor and separated as quickly as possible when they saw Ron. They were both a little out of breath.

"Neville?" Ron questioned, his eyes locked straight on Hermione. "He was your secret little choice?"

"Ron, nothing happened!" Hermione said, her voice weak from the frustration of the awkward situation.

"It's not what you think, mate!" Neville shouted. He looked absolutely terrified, as if he were afraid Ron would lunge at him and beat him to a bloody pulp.

And Hermione knew that there was a decent probability that Ron would actually lunge at Neville and beat him to a bloody pulp.

Ron turned around for a moment so that his back was facing them. His fists were clenched in rage. Here came the lunge.

It never came.

Ron turned back around with his fists still clenched, but something was different. He had a very thin-lipped smile on his face.

"Well, congratulations." He spoke. "But that doesn't matter. We have something much bigger to deal with, from the way Ginny made it seem when she burst through my door."

"Let's just floo back to my flat." Neville squeaked. "Mind the fireplace gate."

Neville took a small handful of floo power from the pot on Hermione's mantle and practically ran into the fire, shouting for his home.

Hermione reckoned that Neville was lucky to make it home without pissing himself first.

"I've got to tell you, Hermione." Ron snarled through cynical laughter. "When you told me you had chosen someone already, Neville Longbottom was not the first person to come to mind."

"Ron, Neville was just coming in to talk to you and-"

"Forget it, Hermione!" There was something different in his voice this time as he picked up some floo power and tossed it into the fire. "You don't have to come up with an excuse. It doesn't matter. I won't tell anyone."

Without another word he stepped into the green fire and disappeared.

Hermione choked back tears. She felt so selfish. Ron thought she was in love with Neville, but she could never have such deep feelings for a man like Neville. This bothered her more than the fact that Neville had just told her that there was a true emergency at hand.

As she made her way to the fireplace, Hermione felt as if this was the worst night of her life.

Hermione had hoped that her dignity would be restored once she met up with all the others at Neville's flat, but the exact opposite happened. Her heart hit rock bottom.

Ron sat at one head of the table. He looked absolutely torn between anger and despair. He was still staring down Neville, who sat at the foot of the table. Neville was clutching the table for dear life at this point.

Harry and Ginny sat on one side of the table. The looks on their faces clearly expressed that they were more than confused. They were starting to panic.

The only people beside Neville who seemed to know what was going on were Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati. Seamus looked paler than ever as he held a gently weeping Lavender in his arms. Parvati sat with her head in her hands. By the shaking body, Hermione guessed that she was crying as well.

"Get on with it, then." All the tension in the room made Ron snap. "What's happened?"

"Ron! Stop!" Ginny whispered harshly, eyeing Lavender and Parvati. "What's gotten into you?"

Ron's fist hit the table. "None of your damn business!"

Hermione couldn't believe his reaction to what he thought he had just seen. Why was Ron so defensive? Hermione knew she had to say something in order to resolve the situation, but she certainly didn't plan what came out of her mouth next.

"For Merlin's sake Ronald, I'm not in love with Neville!"

Everyone at the table, whether they had been crying, panicking, or raging, looked up in Hermione's direction. She was the smartest witch in her year. How did this always happen to her?

She had to explain quickly. "Neville's shoe got caught in his fire gate and I had to pull him through! He lost his balance and we fell, that's all!"

To prove her point, Neville walked over to the fireplace where his shoe was still lodged. After a few tough yanks, he pulled it out and held it up for all to see.

It was obvious that Ron was trying to come up with another explanation or a witty comeback, but Harry didn't give him the chance.

"Who gives a damn?" Harry growled. "Something's happened and I want to know what the hell is going on!"

Neville hung his head in shame. The troublesome shoe was placed on the ground. Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati became particularly uncomfortable.

"Dean's gone missing."

"Missing?" Hermione replied. "Have you told the Ministry?"

Hermione couldn't believe that after all that had happened, she was still referring her companions to the Ministry of Magic.

"The Ministry doesn't give a damn." Seamus finally spoke, his voice cracking in a boyish way that the others had never seen in him before, not even at age eleven. "They just reported him as dead."

Ginny's gasp of breath was audible throughout the room. "Dead?"

"Dean having gone missing doesn't mean that he's dead." Ron didn't seem so angry anymore. He too had reverted to a childlike voice filled with pure denial. "He could have had emergency family situation or a business trip."

"The Ministry has good reason to believe he's dead," Seamus replied. "because I found this in his flat."

Nobody saw Seamus' next move coming. He held up an old cloak that had been clenched in his hand that entire time. There was a large tear running through it and surrounding that tear was thick scarlet liquid. Blood.

"The whole flat was searched. They never found a body."

Hermione knew this couldn't be happening. Dean Thomas couldn't be dead. After the war, they were all going to live long, happy lives. There was no incentive for his murder. Plus, the authorities never found Dean's dead body. There was no confirmed death without a dead body.

"We have to find him."


So, I've written you and poem and I've offered you my food. Now I'm just going to be sweet and simple with you wonderful people who read the stories I write.

PLEASE REVIEW! I always respond to my reviewers, so the experience will be delightfully interactive for you!