22. Bittersweet
After they bring her parents back, before Hermione goes back to Hogwarts and while he is helping his brother to reopen the shop, they go on a vacation together.
Ron, Harry and her.
The Golden trio.
Their families don't understand why, after a year on the road together, they want to get away again so soon.
Alone and together.
Ginny protests, the sting of Harry's almost permanent sacrifice too recent still. But they hold strong, like the forceful trio they've always been. The Chosen one, the knight and the brightest witch of their age.
Truth is that they haven't had time together, in years, when it was just about the three of them. They were teenagers fighting a war they didn't ask for but wouldn't turn their back on. They were children, they still are.
With the funerals, the search of her parents, the rebuilding a world destroyed by war… Harry decided that they needed a little holiday together, just the three of them, just for a couple of days. It didn't take too much convincing to make it happen.
They Apparate on the outskirts of Brighton and plant the tent Bill lent them. It's smaller than Perkin's tent. She's somehow relieved that they lost the roughened up tent that held their fears and hopes for a year. She recalls the days when she thought she'd die unnoticed and forgotten by all, the days when she thought they could hide forever and forget about the war, the day Ron left…
A sharp pang of pain course through her and she closes her eyes and tries to chase the memory away.
"We've had our worst memories this past year. We need to make new ones. Happy ones." Harry says almost reverently. They're all quiet, throats too tight and eyes bright with tears.
Then Harry smirks and she's pretty sure she wants to smack it off his face, "Two rules: no snogging and no shagging."
She blushes and catches Ron's red face, they're both thinking of another time in another tent, not so long ago.
"Seriously guys!" Harry moans in complaint, "honestly, I'm glad for the two of you but I think I may be regretting the time you used to fight all the tim-"
"We didn't fight!"
"She's a handful mate."
They both retort at the same time.
Harry holds his breath, a reaction all too familiar to go unnoticed before Hermione turns sharply toward Ron.
"What did you just say?"
"You're...erhm… delightful?" he tries, looking at her half apologetically.
"You're unbelievable." She storms away inside the tent.
"What were you saying mate?" She hears Ron whisper.
"Nevermind," Harry mumbles as Ron follows her footsteps and enters the tent, "I should have let Ginny come."
