The next morning, Hermione had a nightmare that she was walking through her parents' house calling their names. She could hear them but no matter what room she walked into, they weren't there. She woke crying with a throbbing headache. She opened her eyes to see a small purple bottle on the nightstand. It was labeled 'Hangover Potion' in Fleur's flowing script. She wiped her face and opened the bottle, gratefully drinking its contents. Crookshanks nudged his head against her side and she ruffled his fur. At least one thing had gone well last night. It was only half five and Ginny was still asleep. As quietly as she could, she slipped on her dressing gown and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and tame her hair. Downstairs, she drank a glass of water and let Crookshanks out, only to see Ron standing in the garden. "Are you alright?" she asked, walking up to him.

He turned around. "What are you doing up?"

"Same as you, I suppose," she said.

"Nightmare?" he asked.

She nodded.

"You alright?"

She nodded again. "You?"

"Yeah," Ron said.

"I'm really sorry about last night," she said. "Was it you who left the hangover potion for me?"

"Yeah," Ron said. "Figured you'd need it."

"I did. Thanks."

"Gin wants me to have the address to your parents' place. She's a bit miffed at Harry always having to go get you. Besides, I meant what I said last night, if you still want some time alone."

She looked at him and bit her bottom lip. She did want time alone with him, lots of time, but he always couched things in terms of other people. She wanted to know what he wanted. "It doesn't matter. Harry's right, I shouldn't go back there until it's been cleared by the Aurors. I've been really lucky so far."

He scratched his belly through his T-shirt. "Dunno, I could use a good snog myself." He winked at her and grinned.

"Don't make fun of me," she said.

"Hey," he said, stepping closer to her. "I'm not. We can do whatever you want. Seriously. I just want you to be happy."

Part of her, a selfish part, wanted to say okay, let's go. But a bigger, less sure part, didn't think that was such a good idea. If he went into a relationship just to please her, it wouldn't last, and if it didn't last, they might not be friends anymore after that, and she couldn't bear the thought of him being out of her life entirely. "Happy is a lot to ask," she said. "I'm just trying to get through the day."

"I know," he said, putting his arms around her. "But I want more for you than that."

"I want more than that for all of us," she said into his chest. "But I think we have to take what we can get." He really did smell good and the idea of taking what she could get seemed more and more appealing by the moment.

"That's true," Ron said. His eyes were so inviting when she looked up at him that her doubts slipped away. She tugged him down by his shirt and he pressed his lips to hers. She opened her mouth to him, slid her hands around his neck and her fingers through his hair to pull him closer. As her hands went higher, his went lower, until he had her bum in his hands pulling her tight against him. She thought she might drown in the sheer joy of it. She wanted to climb up his body and wrap her legs around him. She couldn't get close enough to him. She wanted him inside her. She wanted to merge with him.

"Oi!" George said. "You two know you're standing in the middle of the garden, right?" They popped apart and Hermione turned around to face George, her back to Ron, her face hot. George shook his head. "Oh, Ronnie, what would our sainted brother say."

Hermione could feel Ron taking deep breaths behind her even as she tried to control her own breathing.

"Dunno," Ron said. "Probably, 'way to go Ron' or something like that."

George grinned, nodding. "Likely, yes. And you little Miss Granger. Fred always said you were a firecracker underneath all those books. Looks like he was right." His face fell. "He was always right." George's voice cracked and a tear slipped down his cheek. "Always bloody right."

"George?" Hermione said.

"Hey," Ron said.

"Sorry," George said, wiping his face on his sleeve. "Sorry. Carry on." But he seemed to crumple. Ron caught his arm and Hermione got on his other side and the three of them, stood there for a moment. "Sorry," George said again. "I don't know what's…bloody hell." And then he was crying in earnest, holding on to both of them. Hermione looked at Ron. There were tears in his eyes too.

"It's alright," Ron said. "Absolutely fine."

Hermione nodded and stroked George's hair. "You're alright."

It took a minute for George to pull himself together. When he stepped back from them he straightened his shirt and smoothed back his hair. "Well, that was embarrassing."

"What was?" Ron said. He looked at Hermione. "Do you recall anything embarrassing?"

She shook her head. "No. Nothing."

George looked from one to the other. "You two lie really well."

"You've no idea," Ron said. "Let's go in. I could use a cuppa."

"Me too," Hermione said.

George followed them into the kitchen.

His mother was sitting at the table with a big pot of tea already made. "Goodness, you three are up early." She looked at George in the same clothes he was wearing last night. "Are you just now getting in? Honestly, Fred, you've got to stop—" Everyone froze. For weeks, everyone had been careful not to say Fred when they meant George, which mostly meant no one said either name out of fear of saying the wrong one, and now his mother had made the ultimate gaff.

"It's George, Mum," he said. "I know Fred was usually the one sneaking in at the crack of dawn, but—"

"I'm so sorry, George," his mother gasped, tears filling her eyes, she stood, but he waved her off.

"Don't be," he said. "I'm fine. It's an easy mistake to make, especially for you, given all those years you had to yell both names. Don't worry about it. I've had a long night. I'm going to bed."

His mother nodded, her face etched with agonized worry. George plodded upstairs.

Hermione got two mugs out of the cabinet and poured tea for her and Ron.

Ron sat across from his mother. "It's alright, Mum."

She shook her head. "I can't believe I did that. I've been so careful."

"We all have, Mum," Ron assured her. "But it was bound to happen eventually."

Hermione saw the post owls coming and opened the window for them. There were several letters including one for George from the Ministry of Magic. She set the post on the table and took a seat next to Ron.

Molly looked at them. "Why are you two up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," Ron said.

"Me either," Hermione agreed. She cleared her throat. "I'm really sorry about last night. Thank you so much for taking care of Crookshanks."

Molly sighed. "I was happy to help him. He's a good cat. I know you must be thrilled to have him back"

Hermione nodded. "I really am. I can't even tell you how great it is."

Molly looked at them sympathetically. "I know this must be a very difficult time for you two." Ron and Hermione glanced at each other. "I want you to know, if Ginny wasn't still underage, the rules around here would likely be different, but your father is concerned and adamant that we not change our stance right now. It's very important that she continues her education."

"Sure, Mum," Ron said.

"Of course," Hermione agreed. They glanced at each other again.

"I think I'm going to go ahead and get dressed. I need to go to the market and run some errands in town." She stood, sifted through the post quickly, pulled out a couple of letters, and went upstairs.

Ron and Hermione continued drinking their tea until they heard her bedroom door close.

Hermione broke the silence. "Was she talking about—?"

"Yeah, I think she was," Ron said. "Bloody hell."

Hermione put her face in her hands. "I must have been worse last night than I thought, if she felt the need to address it."

Ron put his hand on her back. "You weren't that bad."

"Clearly, I was," Hermione groaned.

"Nah," Ron said. "The hilarious thing is that she thinks we have any influence over Ginny."

Hermione looked at him and smiled. "That is pretty funny."

"Right? As if," Ron said, smirking. "Harry barely has any influence over Ginny."

Hermione chuckled. "That's true. Of course, I think that's part of her appeal to him. She's not blinded by his status."

"Not anymore," Ron said. "She used to be quite dotty about him, remember?"

"Yes, but she was just a kid then."

"I guess that's Mum's point though," Ron said. "Technically, she's still a kid."

"Right," Hermione said. "Only not really. It seems kind of silly to make her adhere to an arbitrary line."

Ron nodded. "I know, but I do see their point about school."

"Yes, about that," Hermione said. "I talked to McGonagall."

Ron raised his eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"She said I can challenge the exams."

Ron's mouth dropped open. "Seriously? How does that work?"

"I just contact the professors whose exams I want to challenge and set it up with them. Apparently, Mum and Dad paid for last year, but when I didn't show up, the money stayed in my account at the school, so I'm covered for books and fees."

"Oh," he said. "So, how many are you going to challenge?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. All of them, maybe."

"That's mental, you know that."

"Possibly. I'm going to do some reading over the next few weeks to try and assess where I am in terms of subjects and then I'll decide. I've already started on Ancient Runes and I definitely think I'm up to that."

"So, by challenge," Ron said. "Does that mean you're going back to school?"

"Not exactly," she said. "I won't be living there. Hopefully, that means I can get room and board refunded to me. I could use the money."

"Oh," Ron said. "Where do you think you'll live then?"

"Home, I suppose. It's not like I have the money to rent a place in Hogsmeade, although in many ways, that would be ideal."

"London to Hogwarts every day is going to be exhausting Hermione, no matter how you do it."

She shook her head. "It won't be every day. I'm not attending classes. I'm doing independent study. I'd probably only go in on occasion, once a week or so, to get books from the library or meet with professors."

"Huh," Ron said, thinking about all the possibilities of Hermione having her own place.

"I just have to wait for the Aurors to clear the house, but since it's a Muggle place, I suspect it's pretty low on the priority list."

"You could ask Harry to have a word with Shacklebolt," Ron suggested.

"No. It's not important enough for that. It'll get done soon enough. Honestly, I'm not even ready to go inside yet, so why rush?"

He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. "I'm sorry. I know this is hard."

She closed her eyes, enjoying his touch. "It's alright. I'm getting there."

Someone was coming downstairs, so he withdrew his hand.

"I'm going to take a shower," Hermione said, as Harry came into the kitchen.

"Alright," Ron said. "Harry and I can make breakfast."

"Oh?" Harry said. "Okay."

xXx

At breakfast, George opened his letter to find that the Aurors had cleared the shop for him to return. "Alright then," he said. "I guess I know what I'm doing today."

"I can go with you," Ron offered.

"Perhaps we all should," Harry said.

"No," George said. "I think I want to go on my own today, check things out, see what needs to be done, and then maybe we can come up with a plan."

"Sure," Ron said. "Sounds good."

"Makes sense," Harry agreed, but they exchanged concerned glances.

"It'll be fine," George said.

xXx

It was raining. Crookshanks had come back inside, and Hermione was looking for the Standard Book of Spells: Year 7, that was supposed to be somewhere in the parlor. It had belonged to Percy, but Fred had put an obfuscation spell, and an invisibility spell, on it five years ago and no one had seen it since. The obfuscation spell prevented Accio or a location spell from working. Hermione was pacing back and forth in the parlor tapping her wand against her thigh as she tried to figure out how to find the book. Ron was attempting to play chess with Harry but he was distracted by Hermione's pacing. It was turning him on. He thought it was the wand tapping that really put him over the edge, but then almost everything she did these days turned him on. Even watching her drink her morning tea had turned into somewhat of an erotic experience.

"I don't understand," Hermione said. "Percy is clever, why didn't he find the book?"

Ginny looked up from a Quidditch magazine she was perusing. "Because Fred wanted him to spend Christmas hols running around looking for his book and Percy wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Instead, he sent a letter to Penelope, who said he could borrow her older brother's book, and that was that. The whole thing was forgotten."

"Why didn't Percy just borrow Charlie's book?"

"Come on, Hermione," Ron said. "Percy's book was Charlie's book. Probably Bill's too."

Hermione blushed. "Oh, right." She looked around. "It's definitely in the parlor though?"

"That's what Fred said and he didn't generally lie about a prank," Ginny said.

Hermione looked around. "Well, it isn't on the bookshelves because it would show up as a gap." She resumed pacing. "Since the goal was to irritate Percy, while amusing himself, what would amuse Fred the most?"

"Irritating Percy was what amused him most, beyond taking the mickey out of me," Ron said.

Hermione looked around the room. "Yes, but finding it would need to be funny in itself, don't you think? Like the key to this is probably something that makes the finder look stupid or clownish, because Percy doesn't like to be perceived as silly. Right?"

"You have a point," Ginny said.

"Why are you looking for this again?" Harry asked. "I thought you had that book when we were camping."

"I did," Hermione said. "But it was on the table, not in my bag, when the Snatchers came."

"Oh," Harry said. "Right." He looked guilty. Ron clenched his jaw, still angry that Harry had slipped and said Voldemort's name when he knew there was a trace. Hermione looked haunted for a moment and it broke his heart and made him even angrier. He pushed it down. It was over. That bastard was dead and Harry had died to make it happen. He could be forgiven a slip of the tongue.

The room fell silent. Ginny glanced at the other three and Arthur lowered his paper to see why everyone had stopped talking. Finding nothing to worry about, he stood and went into the kitchen for another cup of tea.

"That's it," Hermione said, breaking the silence. "I need the room."

"What?" Ginny said, but Ron and Harry were already getting up.

"Better take your game, it's likely to get knocked over," Hermione added.

Ron picked up the board. Clearly confused, Ginny followed him and Harry into the kitchen. Ron set the chessboard on the kitchen table and turned around to watch. Harry was already leaning against the doorjamb waiting to see what Hermione would do. Ginny stood between them. Her father came over and stood behind her. Hermione raised her wand. Every book in the room rose and began flying around. A shimmering shield appeared around Hermione. The books began to organize themselves, but as they moved into order each one hit her shield. A few minutes later she was completely encircled by a high wall of neatly stacked books. She lowered the shield and scanned the stack until she found a clear gap. She plucked out the invisible book and cast a charm to reveal it, Standard Book of Spells: Year 7. She smiled, flicked her wand, and all the other books flew onto the bookshelves in alphabetical order by author. The others clapped.

"Good show," Arthur said and resumed his place in the parlor and picked up his paper.

"Clever," Harry said. "How'd you work it out?"

"Well," Hermione said. "The simple answer to finding the book was to cast an ordering charm on all the books in the room, so they'd organize themselves and then I could see the invisible one surrounded by the others, but Fred cast the obfuscation charm, so I figured he'd want the books to attack whoever tried to order them, because he'd think it was funny if they attacked Percy, so I cast a preemptive shield. I guess he figured Percy would cast a shield pretty quickly too, so he had the books create a wall around the caster if an ordering charm was cast, which is why he had to confine the search to the parlor. If he'd said it could be anywhere in the house, your mother would have killed him for having all the books in the house piled up in here."

Ron leaned over and kissed the top of her head and touched the small of her back at the same time. "Genius."

A shiver ran through her and he smiled. "Thanks," she said quietly.

Harry set the chessboard down and they resumed their game. Hermione settled onto the floor in the corner of the room next to the bookcase and opened the spell book.

xXx

Ginny returned to the sofa and her Quidditch magazine, but she wasn't really reading it. Instead, she thought about Hermione saying she needed the room and Ron and Harry immediately getting up without question. She remembered Harry's firm "don't do that again" to Hermione when she returned from spending the night alone in London. Hermione had simply nodded as though Harry had the authority to say that to her. Then she thought about him saying he'd taken Hermione side-along loads of times. She frowned. Their relationship confused her. The three of them had always been tight, but with each passing year, the bond seemed tighter, the shorthand of their conversations even shorter, now the three of them seemed capable of communicating with just a glance, a raised eyebrow, a brief shrug, but Harry and Hermione seemed to have their own subset of shorthand as did Ron and Hermione. She supposed Ron and Harry did too, but it was the bond with Hermione that bothered her. She understood that Hermione could take Harry side-along because she'd been him with Polyjuice Potion. Ginny still remembered how anxious she'd been that night waiting for them all to return from Surrey. She also understood that Hermione was very gifted when it came to Apparition, which was good, since she was so miserable on a broom, so Ginny accepted that Hermione could take both of them side-along. What she was less comfortable with was Harry's ability to side-along with Hermione. To her knowledge, he didn't ever take Ron side-along or ever Apparate all three of them. Why then, was he able to Apparate with Hermione? Of course, Harry was very powerful. He was the Chosen One, able to do magic well beyond his years from the beginning, but this intimate act bothered her, and she wasn't sure why. Nothing about Harry and Hermione made her think they were ever lovers. Although, there had been those rumors about her and him during the Triwizard Tournament. Perhaps, Ron had been wrong. Perhaps they'd had a fling back then and just kept it from him, but even if they had, they were so young, surely, they hadn't had sex. Ginny looked at Hermione where she sat on the floor. Hermione had told her about snogging Krum during their weekly make-out sessions when he was supposed to be helping her improve her flying skills. No way had she dated Harry then. She was barely able to manage a relationship with Krum. She couldn't have had both of them on the hook. She simply wasn't that girl, at least not back then, which left only the last year in the woods. What had gone on during those months with just the three of them crammed into that tent, hiding from the rest of the world? The possibilities seemed so unlikely, and yet, Harry could Apparate with Hermione, which irked her. She sighed. They were the Golden Trio, and while she was often a wanted fourth, it would never be the Golden Quartet.

In the end, she trusted all three of them, loved all three of them, and was in love with Harry, and she knew he loved her back. If something had happened between Harry and Hermione, it had to have been due to some bizarre circumstances. Hermione very obviously loved Ron. She'd never seemed interested in Harry that way, and Hermione certainly wasn't his type. Ron, on the other hand, had spent years trying to appear cool about Hermione and mostly failing to everyone but Hermione, who for some reason, didn't recognize how batty he was about her. She looked from one to the other and wondered when they'd gone off track. At the wedding, they'd seemed closer than ever and she was certain they'd finally worked out what they both wanted, but somehow, despite months together on the run and spending the night together after the Battle of Hogwarts, they were offset now. It didn't make sense. She felt like there was a significant piece of information that she was missing. The problem was the three of them had been very tightlipped about their time on the run. She knew some of that was because of the gag order, but she suspected a lot of it was something else, something more personal. She just wasn't sure what that was.