A/N: Hey guys. I'm so sorry it took so long to update. I've been celebrating Thanksgiving, so it's been hectic. For those non-Americans, Thanksgiving is a tradition where we Americans shirk our duties at work and school to sit down and gorge ourselves on too much food. This may sound like the sort of thing that Americans do all the time, but on Thanksgiving, we can excuse it. Anyhow, enjoy the chapter!
"Harry! Harry! Can you hear me?"
Harry came to slowly. Much to his shock, he found himself lying on the floor with his head in Hermione's lap and a strange throbbing in his head and especially his nose. A woman with the same kind, brown eyes as the ones he was staring up at hovered nearby. A thin man with a very suspicious look on his face watched Harry with a glare from his place in the corner.
"Oh, thank goodness Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, brushing Harry's hair off of his head.
"What happened?" he groaned, sitting up.
"Well, you Apparated here all right, but you walked straight into that wall there," Hermione gestured at the brick wall behind him.
"Oh. Very graceful of me, wasn't it?" he said wryly, rubbing his nose, "Where's Ron?"
Just as he spoke, a loud CRACK reverberated through what appeared to be a living room, prim and clean with matching sofa, chairs, and coffee tables. Ron stood before the Grangers and Harry with his eyes tightly shut. He seemed reluctant to open them, and did not open his eyes until Hermione made an impatient cough sound in her throat, and Ron could no longer pretend that he was not in the presence of fellow human beings.
"Oh," he said with a gulp, "So I've made it, have I?"
"Ron Weasley, you knew very well you had!" Hermione said in a disapproving tone.
She turned away from him as he walked toward her and she said pleasantly, "Mom, Dad, this is Ron Weasley-"
"So we've heard," Mrs. Granger said with a smile, shaking Ron's hand as he gulped again nervously.
"And this is Harry Potter."
"Hello, Harry. Oh, we've heard so much about you boys!" Mrs. Granger seemed very pleased to be officially meeting her daughter's best friends. Harry wondered to himself if Hermione had told her parents that she was dating Ron, or if she had waited until she got home to tell them.
"Dad," Hermione implored, "you've heard about them as well…"
Mr. Granger moved toward the boys and shook Ron's hand genially.
"Good to meet you! We have wondered. All these years, our Hermione speaks of little else than you boys. Good to meet you, I say!"
He turned to shake hands with Harry, but did it with a considerably less jovial air, still eyeing him with suspicion.
"N-nice to meet you, Mr. Granger," Harry said, taken aback by the rather cold greeting. He looked at Hermione, who was frowning at her father.
"Well, I expect you all are tired. I don't know whether or not popping in from one place to another makes you tired, but…it's late, and you should get some rest. Want to be fresh tomorrow if we only—well, if there are only two days to spend together."
Mrs. Granger's kind voice wavered a bit as she, no doubt, contemplated her daughter leaving.
"Yeah, alright. Good idea, Mom," Hermione said, still watching her father who was making Harry squirm under Mr. Granger's gaze.
"If you all want to sit and talk, use the den," Mr. Granger said, the jovial tone back as he looked at Ron and Hermione, but it turned dark again as he turned his eyes back to Harry, "but leave the door open."
"Dad, what?" Hermione started to ask, but Harry shook his head.
"Great, thanks, Mr. Granger," Harry said politely.
Harry helped Hermione and Mrs. Granger carry the luggage up the stairs as Mr. Granger chatted with Ron. Ron seemed less nervous now and was answering Mr. Granger's questions happily.
"So, a family of witches and wizards? How fascinating! How do you do simple things, like flipping a light switch? Do you use your wands instead? Do you fly on magic carpets? What about brooms? Hermione's answered theses questions for me before, but I'd be fascinated to hear what a wizard whose known nothing but magic his entire life thinks."
Ron answered questions until they reached the den.
"So interesting," Mr. Granger said, shaking his head as he made to leave the trio in the den, "So, Ron, yours and Harry's room is just there. Hermione's is across the way. And ours-" he looked significantly at Harry "-is right at the end of the hall."
"Right, thanks MR. Granger. Goodnight, Mrs. Granger!" Ron smiled at the couple and moved into the den. Harry looked at the Grangers and then at Hermione. She looked as puzzled as Harry.
"Mom! Can I have a word?" Hermione called to her mother, "Go ahead inside, Harry. I'll sort this out."
Harry nodded and ducked into a comfortably decorated den with a table and chairs at one end and a large squishy sofa at the other with an armchair on one side.
"Nice folks," Ron said, leaning back into the sofa, "Really nice. Mr. Granger's like the muggle counterpart of my dad. Doesn't seem to like you much, though does he, mate?"
"Yeah. You could try to sound less cheerful about it," Harry said.
Ron chuckled, "Sorry, Harry, can't do that. I thought for sure they'd hate me. Better me than you. After all, you're just the best friend. I'm the boyfriend. They can only hate you for so long, but me…they can hate me forever. Besides, my parents love you, so Hermione's parents have to hate you. It's just in the rules. You can't be loved by your girlfriend's parents and your best friend's parents."
"But, you're my best friend, and your parents are Ginny's parents which mean they love me. So one of my best friend's parents love me."
"Harry," Ron said, "could you maybe do me a small favor, and stop poking holes in my logic? I'd like to enjoy being the favorite here. Doesn't happen often."
Harry opened his mouth to retort when Hermione walked in with a smile on her face. She plopped herself down next to Ron on the couch, and laid her head on his shoulder. Turning up at him with a grin she said, "How would you feel if I told you that the only reason my father hates Harry is because he thinks I'm dating him?"
"WHAT?" Ron said loudly.
"SHHH!" Hermione put her hand over Ron's mouth, "Shhh! Mom told me that she couldn't remember whom I told her I was dating, so she took a stab at it and said Harry. She figured she'd just correct herself if she was wrong; I mean it was a fifty-fifty chance. Then when Harry got here, you missed this Ron, he managed to knock himself unconscious, and so I went to help him. My dad interpreted my attentions in the same way that Rita Skeeter did in our fourth year. And so, he thinks Harry and I are together."
Harry laughed so hard that he almost fell out of the armchair he was sitting in.
"Bad luck, Ron."
"But, then, if he finds out that I'm dating you, he'll hate me?"
Ron's face fell. Hermione chuckled, "Oh, Ron, he won't hate you. He'll just be…wary of you, that's all."
"Did you tell your mum to tell him, then? Does he already hate me?"
"No, Mom said she'd leave it up to me to tell him. Unless you want to do it…"
"Me? Do I? Do I want to tell your father that I'm dating his one and only daughter? It doesn't appear that that would go well, Hermione? Do you want me to lose my head? Because he was looking at Harry tonight like he was going to chop Harry's head off. That's how he's going to look at me, too!"
"Oh, you are soooo dramatic Ron!"
Harry heard the exasperated tone in her voice, and knew that if the topic was not changed, there would be fighting. And Harry really didn't want to put up with bickering. Underneath the fatigue, brief entertainment at Ron's expense, and feeling of general foreboding at what the three of them were planning to attempt, he missed Ginny. And hearing his two best friends fighting was not going to improve his disposition.
"Listen, Ron, don't think about it just now, all right? Just…sleep on it. We have some details to discuss. About Saturday night."
It was Thursday night, and they would be leaving on Saturday night for Godric's Hollow. They also had no idea what they were looking for.
"Oh, Harry…this is a really important conversation. It's just, I think we should wait until tomorrow to discuss it," Hermione said.
"Why?" Harry said curiously.
"I'm too tired to formulate a plan now, and I'd just like to enjoy tonight and tomorrow without worrying about what will most likely be the most dangerous trip of our lives. You know?"
Harry nodded slowly. He knew he was not going to enjoy himself until this…mission was through and he could go home to Ginny.
"Oh, Harry, how insensitive of me!" Hermione said, "You left Ginny! And I haven't even asked how you are!"
"I'm- I will be fine," Harry said, "She didn't cry or anything. She just wished me luck. Strange. She just let me go."
"Oh, come on, Harry! Don't you know my sister better than that?" Ron said with a smile as he held Hermione close to him, perhaps feeling sensitive to the fact that the woman he loved was with him and not miles away, "She won't let you go quietly. You haven't heard the end of it from her."
"What do you-" Harry started to ask as Hermione yawned widely.
"Well, I'm so tired. I'm for bed. You two should get some sleep as well."
Harry wanted to ask Ron what he thought Ginny would do, but decided that thinking about her was too painful right now. Perhaps later…
"Goodnight!" Hermione said, hugging Harry and giving Ron a small kiss.
"Night," both boys said as they headed to a small room with two twin beds side by side.
"Can you believe that in about eight hours, her dad's going to hate me just as much as he thinks he hates you? Blimey."
With that, Ron rolled over and fell into a deep sleep. Harry turned in his bed, and flashes of Ginny flashed in front of his eyes. He hoped she was ok. She would be fine. Ron was wrong. She wouldn't do anything stupid. With that thought, and mixed with some thoughts that made him extremely glad that Ron was not a Legilimens, drifted off to sleep.
A/N: Short…I know, I know. But, at any rate, please review! Oh how I crave and worship those reviews! Haha! So…review and see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Fantastic! I've seen it 4 times! And I must say that in the scene where Hermione is reading Rita Skeeter's article (if you're planning on going, watch for this) Hermione reads the words, "Hermione Granger, a plain but ambitious girl…" and Ron's eyebrows go up in a most suggestive manner. Oh, how I love R/Hr! So, review! PLEASE!