Chapter 8: A Late Night Talk and a New Day Begins

Ginny sat at the kitchen table, rolling a quill between her hands over a blank sheet of parchment, back home at the Burrow after leaving Hermione's an hour ago. She was still hearing Harry's departing words as he apparated away and silently wishing her mother was still alive so she could have the heart to heart she so desperately needed to have. True, Hermione was there to talk to if necessary, but she was away at work most days and then it seemed that Ginny herself was working down in Torquay when Hermione was available.

She had just steeled herself to write down what she felt to Harry when Ron came bursting into the kitchen, out of breath as though he has just run a marathon.

"Damn, that's the first time I've missed my landing in over a year!" He exclaimed plopping down at the table across from Ginny and summoning a bottle of butterbeer to himself.

"If you had your mind on where you were going instead of on Hermione's legs you might have made it here." Ginny replied giving Ron a scathing look.

Ron just shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the parchment in front of Ginny.

"You know, Gin, he may not answer any post from anyone right now." He said after reading the heading across the top of the parchment and placed a brotherly hand on her shoulder in which she took great comfort.

"I just wish...things would have been different for him...all of us. Voldemort! Even from the grave that bloody prat is still robbing Harry of his life!"

"But he didn't mention Voldemort under the Veritaserum. He only referred to his Uncle Vernon."

"Well, if not for Voldemort, Harry would not have had to live a life of hell with that fat bastard! How can some people be so cruel to their families like that?"

"Ginny," Ron started placing his hand over hers. "Just because we were raised to appreciative of our family doesn't mean everyone else teaches their children to do the same. Hell, the Dursley's are Muggles and maybe from Vernon's point of view he believes that wizards and witches are vile and loathsome."

"Or maybe his Aunt laid the egg in Mr. Dursley's head that made his hatred grow to the portion it has grown into today?"

"I wouldn't doubt that idea, but what I don't understand, if it is true, is how a woman could do something like that to make it happen to her own sister's child." Ron replied after taking a long drink from his butterbeer.

"Jealousy?" asked Ginny stealing a small sip from Ron's drink.

"That could be it too, but maybe she fancied Harry's dad and was jealous for that reason or maybe it was just because his Mum was a witch and she was just a Muggle."

"That sounds likely, but I just think the woman hated her own flesh and blood for what she was instead of loving her for who she was." She said angrily.

"This debate isn't really going to get us anywhere, Ginny, so I suggest we just call it a night and start fresh in the morning." Ron said quickly sensing his sister's anger rising.

She nodded her head a bit reluctantly and followed Ron from the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Ron?" She asked stopping outside her bedroom door. "Where is it you ended up when you apparated home?"

"Waist deep in the pond." Ron replied blushing slightly and smiling at Ginny's giggles. "You know, I don't know how, but I wound up with a toad in my pant's leg." He finished both now leaning against each other and the wall for support as their laughter grew out of control.

"Maybe...that will teach...you to keep...your mind on...where you are...going next time." Ginny spluttered out through her laughter. "Why didn't you...just apparate the rest of the way home...instead of walking that far?"

'It's good to see her smiling again.' Ron thought shrugging his shoulders and pulling Ginny into a quick hug, thinking about the past day and a half at Hermione's home and heading upstairs to his own room.

Hermione closed her eyes against the sun's rays streaming through her window when she awoke the next morning. After a long night of sitting with Ron and Ginny she had crawled into bed at around one and now, her guess, it was just past eight. She rolled to her right blinking back sleep and saw her assumption was correct on the time. She sat up, after deciding, she did not need to get too much sleep, pulled on her slippers and headed down to the kitchen.

She padded her way across the kitchen, her mind on a glass of orange juice while she waited for her kettle to heat for her morning cup of coffee.

"Long night?" Harry asked coming into the kitchen, causing Hermione to yell and drop the carafe of orange juice, which shattered on the floor, cover her feet in the sticky juice.

"Damn it, Harry!" Hermione almost screamed reaching for a towel. "You almost scared me to death!"

"I'm sorry, but...I needed to talk to you about last night." He replied pulling his wand, repairing the glass carafe and disappearing the splattered juice that covered almost half of the kitchen floor.

"You could have sent Hedwig in with a note instead of lying in wait to scare me." She said sitting down at the little table where she normally ate breakfast and motioned for Harry to do the same.

"I tried to get Hedwig to come, but she refused." Harry replied giving her an apologetic smile as he sat down across from her.

"What did you need to say, Harry?" Hermione asked a little too harshly, sneaking a peek at the kettle on the stove. "I'm sorry to sound rude, Harry, but you just startled me and as you can tell I just woke up."

"It's OK, Hermione, I know you just woke up, but you could have used magic to heat that." Harry pointed out when he realized what she was glancing at, causing her to blush slightly. "You see, I guess last night I had...I don't know some kind of anxiety attack or something from drinking that stupid stuff...well, I'll spare you the details of what happened when I got home, but I managed to sleep for few hours and...realized what had happened-"

"Harry, no one is going to blame you for what was said. We had a discussion after you were gone and what it all came down to is that you have been away from everyone so long and then me having you drink Veritaserum didn't help you out as I hoped it would. I guess all that combined made you a bit paranoid."

Hermione made her way to the kettle, which had started to whistle, and began to prepare two mugs of coffee while Harry began to talk again.

"Look that's the problem I made an ass of myself with Ginny...we had sort of a...tender moment in Hogsmeade yesterday-"

"You and Ginny! Ha, I've was expecting that before you decided to disappear." She said sitting back down and sliding Harry's coffee to him. "Harry, Ginny's been waiting for you these past five years, I can only remember one date she's been on in that time period. She's not going to give up that easily just yet."

"Do you have to know everything?" Harry teased with a smile.

"No, but I have great intuition about people's feelings."

"Hermione, all joking aside, what do I need to do to fix myself?"

"You just did the first step, Harry, admitting you have a problem, but I would say maybe we all need to go see a group therapist."

"Why do you three need to have therapy?"

"Well, mostly it would mean we were there to support you, but Ron is never going to waste time sitting around St. Mungo's having his head analyzed. I am and I'm sure Ginny would be willing to it for you."

Harry grasped Hermione's hand in an appreciative manner and nodded his head about her suggestion. "Are you willing to help me that way?"

"Harry, I will help you get your life back together if that's what you want."

"It's what I want...but mostly I want to feel...human again and to have a normal life."

"Give me about an hour to get ready, then I can take the day off and we will head over to the Burrow to talk with Ron and Ginny."

Harry nodded his approval as Hermione made her way out of the kitchen.

'An hour,' He thought to himself as he poured another cup of coffee. 'She just wants to get Ron's attention.' Harry choked back a laugh as began to flip through the morning's Daily Prophet.