A/N: Okay, this chapter may not be GREAT, but that's because I wrote in all of four days. I figured I have to get to it, otherwise it won't be finished 'till the REAL Book 7 comes out.
Chapter 3 - Guilty Lies and Sad Goodbyes
Hermione awoke the morning after the wedding wondering why she couldn't open her eyes. She then realized that she had fallen asleep with all the makeup on. She fumbled in the dark for the wand on the night-stand. She magically removed the caked on black and blue hues from her eyelids.
"That's better." Hermione said, probably louder than she should have.
"What's that Herm?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you, Ginny."
"It's all right. Gosh, last night was so much fun. Wasn't it?" Ginny said sitting up. She wrapped her arms around her pillow and hugged it to her chest.
Hermione fussed with her hair as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She had only had time to take off her dress, so she had fallen asleep in her her nylons and under-things. "Oh, yeah. Sure."
"I saw you and my brother looked quite happy out there on the dance floor."
She turned around to face her. "So did you and Harry. So, I gather the two of you have reconciled, then?"
"Oh, yeah! Yesterday morning. Between the wedding and everything yesterday, I had forgotten to tell you. It was so perfect, until Ronald", she put an emphasis on his name so that she sounded as though she was going to gag, "ruined everything."
"What'd he do?" Hermione asked, sounding only mildly interested.
"He knew perfectly well that Harry and I were, well... having a private conversation and he interrupted on purpose."
"Don't be so hard on him, Gin. He's just a concerned older brother and --"
"Well, if he wants to tell Harry and I off for kissing, then maybe he wants I should get in his face for how he was last year with Lav-"
Ginny saw Hermione getting upset at the mention of Ron's ex-girlfriend.
"Hermione, I didn't mean to-- I'm sorry."
"For what?" Hermione said shakily.
Ginny looked around nervously, unsure of what to say. She picked up her book and put on her bathrobe. "I'm going to see what Harry and my brothers are doing. Bye." She darted for the door before Hermione could open her mouth to say anything.
Ginny went down the hall and up the landing to Ron's room. She didn't know whether any of them were still asleep, so she opened the door without knocking. She found Harry and Ron soundly snoring. She tiptoed over to the bed Harry was sleeping in and sat on the edge of it. She sat and watched his chest rise and fall with his heavy breathing. In only his undershirt, she could see his torso was lean and defined from years of quidditch practice. She reached over, took off his glasses and set them on the bedside table. He apparently had fallen asleep with them on, again. She then realized he wasn't sleeping peacefully. His face was glistening with sweat and she heard him muttering under his breath.
"No, no, leave her alone... I won't let you hurt her... no... Ginny... no..."
She gently tried to wake him. "Harry, Harry, wake up." She whispered, still not wanting to wake Ron.
Harry moaned sleepily. "Mmph, Ginny?" He sat up and reached for his glasses.
"Harry, you were having another nightmare."
"Was, was I talking in my sleep again?" Harry rather loudly, considering the rest of the house was silent.
"Harry! Everyone else is still sleeping! Shhh!" She put a finger to her lips.
Harry looked over to his best friend still snoring louder than ever. "I'll bet Ron over there could sleep through the whole house yelling straight in his ears."
"Only if breakfast wasn't ready." Ginny and Harry sniggered at this comment.
Ginny turned around to let herself lay her head on Harry's chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist. "So, where'd Fred and George go?" Ginny asked conversationally.
"Hmm, I dunno." Harry glanced over at a small piece of parchment on the table. It read Ron and Harry."Hey, look. They've left us a note."
Hey sleepy heads. We would have said goodbye, but we had to leave early so we could get to the shop
before we opened for the day. We hope you all will come visit us sometime soon. Harry,
we hope you had a nice birthday. We've just said goodbye to Mum, but please tell Hermione and Gin
we leave them with a fond farewell. Now, you two try not
to get in too much trouble this year, all right? Don't do anything we wouldn't do...
Fred & George
"Well, I guess that's where the two of them have got to." There was an awkward pause as neither of them had much to say. Then, Hermione came through the bedroom door giving no care as to whether anyone had been sleeping. "Ginny, Ginny, listen--". She was interrupted by a series of strange noises coming from the room's still sleeping occupant.
"Huh-- what's happening-- Hermione? Is that you?" Ron groaned loudly as he sleepily sat up.
Harry and Ginny jumped apart guiltily. Hermione shot them a disproving look. Ginny ran to Hermione's side, afraid for her brother to see she'd come in without Hermione.
"What time is it?" Ron asked, still partially asleep.
"I dunno. Early?" Ginny said hurriedly, her voice at a high pitch.
Harry, then, quickly explained to the other two the note he had gotten from Fred and George.
The couple of weeks were spent in a nervous tension between the four comrades. They went about their usual tasks of doing laundry, de-gnoming the garden and playing Wizard's Chess and Exploding Snap. None of them said much to either each other or Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, but in a silent understanding, they knew they were all feeling guilty about the journey they were planning.
Finally, it was the morning of September first. Mrs. Weasley called all the kids down into the living room. "All right you lot. I have loads to do today, so, Arthur will take you to King's Cross. Let's have the good-bye hugs now and you had better be off." The four of them encased Mrs. Wealsey in a large group hug. Then, Mrs. Weasley felt a wet spot forming on her shoulder. Ron was beginning to cry. This caused the rest of them to get misty eyed as well. "Mum," Ron said shakily. "I love you. I want you to know that. With everything going on in the world, we could be dead any day, and you and Dad, and..." Mrs. Weasley squeezed them all so tight, they felt as though they would cease breathing. "I love you too, dear! I love all of you. Ron, Ginny, you are my youngest children and I love you to pieces. I am terrified of losing you, but I know you can take care of yourselves. And Hermione, you're practically a Weasley too. Not that you don't have your own parents as well, but you're the sister Ginny never had! And Harry... you know I love you just like one of my own." Suddenly, they heard a loud honk coming from the driveway. "Oh No. What has Arthur gone and done now!" Mrs. Weasley said apprehensively, wiping the tears from her eyes.
They all went out to the front, where there was a large, ugly mini-van parked in the Weasley's driveway. "Hey kids. Do you like the ministry car? I picked it out myself. However, Harry, you should be thankful the ministry trusted me enough with you. Instead of an entire armed guard, you are only stuck with me." Harry was more thankful than Mr. Weasley could have guessed. But, Even Molly had a look of disgust at the car Arthur had pulled up in. Despite many agonizing looks of protest, they all piled into the car with Arthur and their luggage. Most of the ride was spent in an awkward silence.
They reached the station and got out of the car. They dragged all of their luggage through the enormous double doors and made their way to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. As they reached the outside to the entrance of the platform, they heard a ringing noise. Apparently the ministry had given Mr., Weasley some sort of a cell phone/pager-like device. He had a frantic conversation with the person on the other end and hung up.
"Sorry kids. I have to go. Terrible emergency in the department. Something about dragon saliva. Here are your tickets. The train leaves in ten minutes. Mum and I will write as soon as we can. Bye all."
With that, Mr. Weasley ran back through the crowded train station.
"Well, that worked out nicely. Now we can leave without being noticed." Ron said matter-of-factly.
Hermione smiled innocently. "I may have had something to with that call." Her friends looked at her quizzically. "Well, I knew that if Ron's dad were here, he'd make sure we physically got on the train. So I made a call to the ministry. I said something about a bloke in bristol trying to pass dragon saliva as an orally taken magical protector."
Ron chuckled slightly. "'Mione, you are abso-bloody-lutely amazing." Ron said in a proud voice. Hermione blushed a bit. She managed to keep her cool, however. She took on her bossy tone again and made an out-loud mental list of what they had to accomplish in the next thirty minutes.
"Let's see, we need to placate our pets so that they don't draw a large amount of attention." They quickly put a silencing spell on each of their pets. Hermione did one for Ginny's pygmy puff.
"I already managed to get tickets for another train, we just need to make sure we aren't seen by anyone from Hogwarts. Our train leaves from Platform 6. Oh, and Harry, we need to mask your scar." Hermione pulled out her wand and Harry felt the same egg-oozing sensation as he had two years previously at the burrow. Only this time, it was contained to the thin, lightening-shaped scar.
"Wow, Hermione. You can't see it at all." Ginny had given him her compact to see his forehead.
"Well, we can't very well have you drawing loads of attention when we're trying to escape discreetly as possible."
"Yeah, right." Hermione thinks of everything, Harry thought to himself.
The four friends made their way to through the busy train station to the correct platform. They gave their tickets to the conductor. As Harry handed him his ticket, the conductor gave him a second glance. Harry casually ran a hand through his hair so that his forehead was clearly visible. The conductor apparently dismissed whatever he was thinking and handed Harry back his ticket. He boarded the train behind his friends.
They got seats near the back of the train, not to near to anyone else. Hermione took a book out of her bag, that looked like it may have been thicker than the dictionary, and began reading. Ginny having fun making faces at Arnold so that he would hop madly and make a face back at her. Ron was blowing lots of bubbles with his Droobles. So, Harry took the opportunity to take a long and well-deserved nap.
END OF CHAPTER
A/N: While writing this, I was simultaneously working on chapter four, so that should be up... soon. Or something like it. And I just realized that my story is not HBP compliant! At the end, Ron and Hermione say that they'll be going WITH Harry to the Dursley's! Oh No! Oh well, what's done is done. Besides, Hermione needed to see her parents. Until next time... this is me saying "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" (RIP the GREATEST wizard who ever lived tear And Sirius too. more tears...)
