May had been exceptionally warm for England. Hermione lamented that she didn't have shorts with her. She was tired of wearing jeans. She'd only brought three short-sleeved T-shirts on the Horcrux hunt and all of them needed washing.

Ginny was pulling on a Weird Sisters T-shirt on the other side of the room.

Hermione sighed and rolled up the sleeves on a long-sleeved button down. She knew she had summer clothes in London, but the Aurors still hadn't cleared her parents' house. Not that she could bring herself to go inside anyway. Somehow going inside and seeing it empty without them would make their absence final. She knew that was ridiculous, their absence had been final for months now, but she wasn't ready to face the finality of their empty house. She sighed again and picked up her beaded bag and went downstairs.

Ron was lugging a big bag down from his room. "Aren't you going to be hot in that?" he asked.

She shrugged one shoulder. "All my T-shirts are dirty and I don't have any shorts with me."

"Oh," Ron said. He held out his hand. "You want me to take that down to Mum?"

"No, I'll do it," she said and continued downstairs.

Outside, George was adding soap to the laundry tubs while Molly sorted clothes.

"Mum," Ron said. "I've cast fifty cleaning charms on my bed, but it still smells faintly of ghoul. Is there anything else I can do?"

"Why didn't you say so before?" his mother said. "Go get it and bring it out to lay in the sunshine. That'll take the ghoul scent right out. I'm so sorry I didn't think to do that sooner."

"It's alright," Ron said, and went back inside.

"Do you have a smaller tub, Mrs. Weasley?" Hermione asked her.

"Whatever for, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Um—," Hermione started awkwardly.

"Hermione has fancy bras and knickers like Fleur does," Ginny commented as she came over with her laundry.

"Oh, don't worry dear, if I can do Fleur's laundry, I can do yours," Molly said.

"It's not that. I just don't want to trouble you," Hermione said.

"It's no trouble," Molly said. "I just won't run them through the mangle."

"Well, alright then," Hermione said.

"Here you go, Mum," Ron said dragging over his pillows and his mattress. "Where should I put them."

"Just drape the feather bed over the line, dear, and hang the pillows."

"Mum," Ron said, tugging on the old, sagging clothesline. "This line needs tightening."

"I've asked your father to do it a million times," his mother said.

"I'll get it," Ron said and handed his feather bed to Hermione. "Hold this a second, will you? George give me a hand with this." There were six sets of posts with long clotheslines slung between them. Ron and George got on either end of the first one and tightened all the slack out of the line.

Hermione held his mattress while they worked. It did smell faintly of ghoul, but it also smelled faintly of Ron. It was a disturbing combination. She was very relieved when he retrieved it and slung it over the line. Then he and George proceeded to tighten up the rest of the clotheslines, while Hermione helped Molly start the laundry. Harry brought his laundry down and started sorting it into piles.

Two of the posts needed to be replaced, so it took Ron and George a while to finish getting the clotheslines tightened. They were almost done when Hermione started hanging her laundry on the second set of lines. As she was hanging two pair of ice blue knickers next to a matching bra, George grinned and said, "Did Fleur leave some of her unmentionables here?"

Ron snorted. "Don't be ridiculous. Those are Hermione's, you can tell by the little bows. Hold up that end, George."

But they had all stopped what they were doing and were looking at him. Hermione was red-faced with her mouth open. She looked appalled.

"What?" Ron said, looking around. He felt his ears go hot. "We were gone the better part of a year. Did you think we never did laundry?"

Molly cleared her throat. "Of course, you did, dear."

"George, hold up your end!" Ron said crossly. George put his shoulder under the post and pulled, so Ron could cast the spell to anchor it.

Hermione finished hanging her laundry as quickly as possible before retreating back inside.

xXx

Hermione spent the rest of the afternoon reading in the window seat in Ginny's room. There was a slight breeze blowing through the open window cooling the room somewhat. She took a deep breath, and tried to focus on the book in her lap, but her mind kept slipping back to Ron's comment. What he'd said wouldn't have bothered her so much, she decided, if they'd actually done what everyone thought they'd done. She sighed. Unbidden her pile of torn and bloody clothes on the floor of Shell Cottage came back to her. She shook her head to clear the image.

Ron tapped on the door jamb. "Hey," he said. "I was cleaning my room and found these and thought you might want them." He held out a short stack of clothes to her. "They're my old Canons T-shirts. They're way too small for me now, but I reckon they'll fit you. I know you're not a fan, but it's better than having to wear long sleeves when it's so warm."

"Thanks," she fingered the collar of one of the T-shirts. They were all a worn faded orange, clearly much loved. "Since when do you clean your room?"

Ron shrugged and sat on the other end of the window seat. "Dunno. Just need to keep busy, I guess."

She nodded. "I've noticed."

"Yeah," Ron said, looking out the window. "There's always something that needs doing around here."

"Right," she said, and picked up the top shirt and held it up. "This should fit."

"Good," Ron said, standing. "Listen, I'm sorry about that comment earlier about the knickers. I don't know what possessed me to say it out loud."

Hermione shrugged. "You were right though. We know all kinds of intimate details about each other, and Harry, that friends don't normally know."

"Right," Ron said. "Well, I think I'll get some more wood chopped before Dad gets home."

"Okay," she said. After Ron left, she considered what he'd said about cleaning his room and went and got her beaded bag. She hadn't been through it since they'd been at the Burrow and it was a mess inside. She carefully began removing items and laying them out on her bed and categorizing stacks of books on the floor.

A little while later, Ginny and her mother came in carrying baskets of laundry.

"I'm so sorry," Hermione said. "I should have come down and gotten my clothes."

"Don't be silly, dear," Molly said. "What's all this?"

Hermione looked around at the piles of stuff all over what she considered her side of the room. "Oh, I've been cleaning out my bag."

"That must be quite the extension charm," Molly said, clearly impressed.

Hermione smiled at the compliment. "Well, I didn't know what all we'd need on the run, so I basically packed everything I could think of."

"Very sensible," Molly said, picking up a potion bottle.

"Those are all empty," Hermione said. "I thought I'd clean them, take the labels off, and put them in your cabinet to be reused."

"Alright," Molly said, sifting through the bottles. "You seem to have gone through an awful lot of Essence of Dittany and Blood Replenishing Potion."

"Lots of cuts and scrapes living rough," Hermione said lightly.

"Yes." Molly frowned. "Well, I'll let you get back to it," she said tightly and hurried out of the room.

Ginny looked at Hermione. "What was that about?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, as she picked up some books to put back in her bag.

"Mum looked upset just now," Ginny stepped over the stacks and poked through the empty potion bottles her mother had been looking at. "Oh," she said softly.

"What?" Hermione said.

Ginny held up a small pink bottle.

"Oh," Hermione said. "That's not what it looks like."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "The label says contraceptive potion?"

"Well, it is, but…it has other uses. If you take two drops a day, every day, its stops you having a period."

Ginny looked at the bottle in her hand. "Really?"

"I didn't want to deal with bleeding three days a month. We were living rough. Constantly moving. It was easier to take the potion."

Ginny nodded. "That makes sense." She worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

"It's not like we were camping for fun," Hermione said.

"Of course not," Ginny said.

Hermione pressed a hand to her forehead. "Now your mum thinks I'm some kind of—"

"I'm sure she doesn't," Ginny hastened to say. "Besides, you're all grown. What you did or didn't do out in the woods is no one's business. The important thing is that you survived and Harry prevailed and the war is over now. You're all home and safe. That's what matters."

"Right," Hermione said, but she had the sinking sensation Ginny was saying all that to convince herself that it didn't matter, because she thought something had gone on.

"I'm going to go get some pumpkin juice and see if Harry wants to toss the Quaffle around," Ginny said.

"Have fun," Hermione said with forced cheer.

xXx

That night at dinner, Hermione felt very self-conscious. She had just about talked herself into calming down, when during a lull in the conversation, Mr. Weasley said, "So, where did you three go after you left the wedding?"

Ron, Harry, and Hermione glanced at each other, before Ron said, "Hermione took us all to London."

"What do you mean, Hermione took you?" George said.

"Double side-along," Ron said, proudly. "Yeah, she can do that."

"Really?" Mr. Weasley said. "Extraordinary."

Mrs. Weasley made a sort of strangled tutting noise.

"Where in London?"

"Tottenham Court Road," Hermione said. "I used to go to the theater there with my parents. It was just the first place that popped into my head."

"You didn't plan this out ahead of time?" Mr. Weasley said.

Harry laughed. "You think we planned what to do if Bill and Fleur's wedding was attacked by Death Eaters? I don't know about Ron, but I was pretty surprised to find myself in London."

"Shocked is pretty much how I felt. I mean, I didn't even know she could do that, but thank goodness she can, because I'm not sure how this whole last year would have worked if she couldn't," Ron said.

"Yes," Mr. Weasley said. "That's an unusual skill. Especially in one so young."

Hermione could feel herself blush. "It came as somewhat of a shock to me that first time too. I just knew we had to get out of there."

"Ah, well, jolly good then," Mr. Weasley said with a smile, but Mrs. Weasley didn't seem so chipper about it. "So then where did you go?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Grimmauld Place," Harry answered, "but after we went into the Ministry, we couldn't go back there."

"That's when we started camping," Ron said.

"Right," Mr. Weasley said.

"I can't believe you went into the Ministry," George said.

"That's what got you on the Most Undesirable List," Mr. Weasley said. "Well, Hermione anyway. Harry was already on it."

"I can't believe they didn't put me on the list," Ron groused. "I was there too."

"Ah," Hermione said, "but you did it in that righteous, pure-blood way, so it was okay."

Harry snorted and choked on his pumpkin juice. Ginny smacked his back as he coughed.

"Truth is," Ron said, "no one saw me."

"Thank goodness," Mr. Weasley said. "Otherwise, we would have been in a world of trouble. So, after that, you were in the woods?"

"Yeah," Ron said, feeling awful that he'd risked his family's safety like that.

"When did you break into Gringott's?" George asked.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all glanced at each other again.

"George we're not going to discuss that," Mr. Weasley said.

"Come on," George said. "It's just family here. We all know they did it. Rumor is they escaped on a dragon. Now that's a story I want to hear."

"George," Mrs. Weasley said. "You know they can't talk about it until that whole situation is resolved."

George frowned. "All the interesting stuff, they can't talk about."

"George," Mr. Weasley said. "Let it go."

"Let it go? Fred died for this cause and we still can't get the whole story. Seriously? What have you three been doing for the last nine months? Who slit Hermione's throat? Why does Harry have that ghastly scar on his arm? And what's Ron hiding? He never takes his shirt off anymore, not even when he's chopping wood on a hot day."

"Calm down, George," Charlie said.

"Don't tell me to calm down," George said hotly.

Hermione stood. "Excuse me," she stepped from behind the bench and went into the garden.

"Bloody hell, George," Ron said and went after her.

xXx

"Hey," Ron called after Hermione. "Stay inside the wards."

She stopped at the garden gate. "I can't stay. I need to go."

"No," Ron said, catching up to her. "No, you don't."

"I can't stay. They need answers. I know they do, but I can't."

"It's okay," Ron said, putting his arms around her. "You don't have to tell them anything. It's none of their bloody business, is it?"

"George is right though," Hermione said. "Fred and a lot of other people died and they deserve answers." She shook her head. "I just…"

He held her tighter and she pressed her face into his chest and clutched his shirt. "You don't have to. We're not even supposed to talk about this stuff. We're under a gag order for the Gringott's thing, so we just extend that over everything else until we're ready."

"What if I'm never ready?" Hermione said into his shirt.

"Then we don't talk about it, simple as that," he said and kissed the top of her head. He loved the way her hair smelled and the way it felt against his cheek. "It's going to be alright. We just need more time. It'll be fine."

"I want to go home," she said.

"I know," he said. "I know."

xXx

Back inside the house, Harry sighed. "Look, I know you all want answers. You deserve answers and I wish I could give them to you, but the truth is, we're under a gag order for most of what you want to know and the stuff we could tell you, well…" He shook his head. "We just aren't ready to talk about. This whole last year has been agonizing and painful and until all three of us are ready to talk, none of us are talking. I'm sorry, but that's how it has to be." He stood and went upstairs. Ginny looked at her parents and George and Charlie. They all sat in chagrined silence. She got up and followed Harry upstairs.

xXx

Hermione stepped back from Ron and wiped her face. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Ron said. "It's been a rough day."

She nodded. "We should go back in and try to smooth things over."

Ron sighed. "Yeah, come on." They walked inside to find Molly cleaning the kitchen alone.

"I'll help your mum," Hermione said. "Why don't you go talk to George?"

"Yeah, alright," he said.

Molly had the sink charmed to wash the dishes. Hermione began putting things away as they sailed through rinse water and then a drying charm.

They stood silently working side by side for a few minutes. "You know," Molly said quietly. "There's a contraceptive charm that's a lot easier than having to keep making the potion."

"I know," Hermione said. "Madam Pomphrey made sure we all knew how to do it every year when we went for our physicals."

"Of course," Molly said. "I'm glad they still teach that."

Hermione sighed. "The potion has other uses."

"I know, dear," Molly said, a tear slipping down her cheek. "I'm just so sorry you needed it for that."

"It wasn't a big deal," Hermione said and Molly looked stricken. "It was just so difficult living rough, it was easier not to deal with having a period."

Molly raised her eyebrows. "That's all you used it for?"

"Of course, what else—" She stopped and realized there were three uses for contraceptive potion and the third was as an abortifacient. She shook her head. "I didn't need it for that."

Molly let out a strangled cry of relief and pulled her into a hug. "When Arthur told me what happened at Malfoy Manor, and then I saw that empty bottle, I thought…oh, I've never been so happy to be wrong. I was so worried about you."

Hermione wiped a tear off her cheek. "I'm fine."

Molly held her by the shoulders and looked at her. "I saw you today at the funeral, Hermione. I know you're not fine. But you will be. It takes time. You all need time."

Hermione nodded. "I just want it to stop," she whispered.

"I know, dear."

"I can't sleep," Hermione said, her voice cracking.

"I can give you a draught," Molly said.

"I can't…" Hermione shook her head. "I'm too scared to be knocked out. What if something were to happen—"

"You're safe now," Molly said soothingly.

Hermione shook her head. "I know, but I still can't…" she felt more tears slip and she hated that she couldn't pull herself together. She felt like she'd cried an ocean of tears since the war ended.

"That's okay," Molly said. "You do what you need to do, and if you need to talk I'm always here, and if you'd like to talk to someone professional, I can help with that too. If you change your mind about the draught, it's in the Potion Cabinet."

Hermione nodded and wiped her face on her sleeve. "Thank you."

"Anytime," Molly said. "Why don't you go up to bed? I can finish here."

Hermione nodded and went upstairs.