"Hermione, can I talk to you?" Ginny asked as she approached the older girl at breakfast. Hermione turned around and looked up at Ginny. The older girl nodded her head, scooted closer to the first year on her other side and made room for the redhead between herself and Ron. Ginny sat down. She paused a moment while she picked at the hem on her robe sleeve. Ron looked at his sister, but continued eating when she didn't say anything. Hermione put her fork down and brushed her fingertips together to get the crumbs from her toast off of them.
"What is it?" Hermione prompted.
"Harry…" Ginny started. There was a snort from where Ron sat. Hermione glared at the boy through Ginny and kicked his leg under the bench. Ron reached down and put his hand protectively over the forming bruise. She kicked hard! Ron scooted a little closer to the sixth year girl on his other side, out of kicking range of Hermione. The girl looked at Ron and scooted away from him, giggling with her friends. Ron reached over and slid his food closer to him, returning to the art of eating scrambled eggs.
"Go on," Hermione said kindly. "What about Harry?"
"Do you think he's coming home?" Ginny asked uncertainly. She looked up from her school robes and looked at Hermione in the eye. "Be honest."
Ron looked up from his scrambled eggs and gave Hermione a look. He didn't want Hermione to go getting his little sister's hopes up. Hermione looked at Ron defiantly, and without taking her gaze away from him said, "Absolutely."
"Should I chase him down?" Ginny asked. "He should be home by now, this is unhealthy to be alone for so long," she added.
"No, just give him time. I'm sure he'll come to his senses soon enough. That is if the search teams don't find him first. Just study hard, and before you know it, he'll be home, begging for forgiveness," Hermione said confidently. Ginny thought longingly about how wonderful it would be to have an ounce of Hermione's confidence.
"Have either one of you thought that maybe he's dead?" Ron proposed. Hermione and Ginny gasped simultaneously at his suggestion. "Ginny, what was the last letter you got from him?" he asked his sister.
"He gave me Hedwig, saying he'd have no more use for her," Ginny said. Suddenly the weight of the words sunk in and she looked back down at her lap. "He killed himself," she said with grim resolution.
"Now hold on! Harry wouldn't do that!" Hermione hissed.
"How do you know?" Ron asked. "The people that are out there looking for him are the best of the best. If he were alive, don't you think they would've found him by now?" Hermione sadly noted the pain in his eyes. Ron didn't want to think that his best friend would do something so horrendous, but he wanted to be prepared for the worse news he may get and the evidence was there.
"Because I know," Hermione said firmly. Ron looked at her sadly before returning to his breakfast, Hermione got the eerie idea that Ron knew something that she didn't, and that something had to do with Harry. Hermione shook off the feeling and looked back to Ginny. "Ginny, trust me, Harry will be home before you know it. Just focus on your grades, and Harry will be home," she repeated.
Ginny looked doubtfully at her older friend. "You sound like a parent trying to get her young child to go to bed on Christmas Eve. 'Go to sleep and Santa will come!'" Ginny said. Hermione blushed slightly. "But this time the kid's not going to sleep because she knows there's no such thing as Santa," Ginny continued sadly.
Ginny turned in her seat and faced her brother. "Ron, what do you think, and be honest. You don't really think that Harry killed himself."
Ron shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Ginny, Harry was my best mate, but give up on him." Ginny opened her mouth to protest, but Ron held his hand up to stop her. "You can do better than that slime ball. Think about it. He disappeared. He gave you no idea when he'd be back or even if he'd be back. The only time he's sent you a letter since he left was when he gave you a note that could lead one to think he was going to kill himself. Ginny, you're better than that!" Ron said forcefully.
"How could you say that about Harry?" Ginny asked, shocked.
"I told you, he was my best mate. Perhaps it's just as well he left. Now we all know what a prat he is to you and to me. It's time to move on, Ginny." Ginny opened her mouth once more to protest, but Ron interrupted. "So, how did Quidditch tryouts go?"
Ginny sighed and resigned herself to the drastic subject change. "I found no one…this year won't be as good as past years."
"How so?" Ron prompted, wanting to keep the non-Harry subject going for as long as possible.
"First of all, I don't even have a Seeker yet. Second of all, no one comes close to being as good as any one person on Harry's team." Ginny said sadly. Ron sighed, so much for staying away from the idea of Harry. He should have known better; Harry and Quidditch went together like Hagrid and monsters.
"Well it won't matter if you don't bring your grades up!" Hermione said from behind her copy of the Daily Prophet that had just been dropped off.
"Hermione!" Ginny protested.
"Hermione, give her a break, she'll manage," Ron said. Ginny rolled her eyes as the two started to argue over her grades. She honestly didn't see how they stayed friends with all their arguing.
"Guys!" Ginny finally interrupted after a minute.
"What?" they asked at the same time. Ginny tried to hide a smile as she pointed to the head table. Rashida was motioning them over.
"Oh! I can't believe I forgot!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Forgot what?" Ron asked.
"We were supposed to get our new house assignments this morning!" Hermione exclaimed, rolling her newspaper up and standing up. Ron stood up and followed her. Ginny watched them go, laughing to herself. She still didn't think Ron knew why he had to go see Rashida.
Up at the head table, Ron and Hermione met up with Katie, Roger, and Rashida. "So how was the first rotation going for house assignments?" Rashida asked.
"Great! The Hufflepuffs weren't nearly as boisterous as the Gryffindors were in my day!" Katie said.
"All the Ravenclaws do is study...it's actually kind of boring in there," Roger confessed. "I don't remember being such a nerd!"
"No problems in Slytherin," Hermione said, shrugging her shoulders. Ron bit back a laugh. He found it hard to believe that there were actually no problems. Hermione probably just didn't want Rashida to think she couldn't manage the Slytherins.
"And I assume there were no problems with the Gryffindors," Rashida said.
"None, no more Fred and George to make it exciting," Ron said.
"Well then in that case, we'll rotate houses until each of you have had a chance to be in each house during your off hours. Then, I'll let you four argue over who gets which house. You will then be like heads of houses, but you'll hopefully be closer to the students so that they'll feel more comfortable telling you if they notice something amiss.
"These next several days I'd like Hermione to be in Gryffindor, Roger in Hufflepuff, Katie in Ravenclaw, and Ron in Slytherin. Same rules, or lack there of apply. I expect you to be in your assigned house in the evenings, in the morning at some point, and in the afternoon at some point. On weekends, I would appreciate it if you could spend a little extra time in your house. Other than that, you're welcome to enjoy yourself in friend's houses, in the halls, or wherever else you so choose. I don't want to hamper your newfound freedom of being graduated students! Now, I'm sorry to have interrupted your breakfast. You are welcome to continue eating." The four students returned to their seats of before.
When Hermione and Ron sat down, Hermione noticed an evil look on Ron's face. "Ronald! Don't you dare go abusing your position!" she chided him before he could say anything.
He looked at her, pretending to be hurt. "Hermione! Who said I was going to abuse my position?" he exclaimed.
"The look on your face. You're going to go and punish the Slytherins if they blink wrong," she predicted.
"They might be plotting something evil," Ron defended. Hermione looked at him sternly.
"We're here for the students to trust! They can't do that if they hate you!" she exclaimed exasperated. Ginny looked to her brother, expecting a reply. It was like watching a tennis match, looking from one side to the other, swiveling her head.
"Just you wait! One of these days a Slytherin will blink and kill someone," Ron said. Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother's pathetic response. She looked up and noticed how empty the Great Hall had gotten. She looked at her watch.
She was late! "It's not that I don't want to keep watching you two bicker, but I have to get to class," Ginny said, gathering her bag and grabbing a last piece of buttered toast.
Hermione looked up and blinked at Ginny. Coming out of her brief stupor, she hustled Ginny along. "Absolutely! Come on; hurry up! You don't want to be late!" Hermione followed Ginny out of the Great Hall and Ron stood up to follow them. He wanted to send a letter to the Ministry to see if they had heard any news on Harry Potter and had simply failed to report anything to the Daily Prophet. Hermione hadn't mentioned anything, so he assumed that meant there ad been nothing in the newspaper yet again.
AN: Well there you go, one more chapter! Sorry, but I've been ridiculously busy…as always, so I guess it's not ridiculous for me…ah well, moving on. So what did you think of this chapter? How was the flow? Does it make sense? What questions should be answered in coming chapters? What plot holes exist thus far? Is anything inconsistent? Those are just a few of the many questions that I would appreciate if you would consider when writing your review, please and thank you!
Response To Reviews: Not bad at all! 13 reviews within 217 hits. Not our best, but it's up there. I challenge you to an all time record this chapter. I want 20 reviews! I bet you can do it!
Anonymous Reviews: Just one this time
harrypotterchick4ever-thanks for reviewing. Yeah, a lot of people want Harry to get better soon….we'll see about that one, and we'll see with him getting back together. Sorry I can't be more precise…
General Concerns: Well other than everybody being happy that Harry is finally home and the shortness of my chapters and the length of my paragraphs, there really isn't anything else that was expressed more than once or twice…keep reviewing and keep asking questions! Theories are also awesome to put in reviews…. as well are ideas…. actually EVERYTHING is good to put in reviews! I'm not picky! Wow….that sounded pathetic…ah well!
