A/N: I got so many apologies now. First of all for the length of the chapter, or rather the lack of length. I know it's really short, but I was kind of stuck at this chapter, not quite sure how to proceed, but suddenly it kind of just loosened. I guess I kind of just felt inspiration and motivation just flowed to me. Which brings me to my second apology. I'm really sorry it has taken this long to update. Like I said, I've been kind of stuck at this chapter, unable to figure out where this was leading. But now I have gotten past this tiny bump in the road, I'm feeling pretty sure I will be able to continue the story a little more easily.
Now, I know there is a few out there who has been waiting for this chapter, so without further ado, here it comes :)
-B
(HERMIONE'S POV)
We walked up the street. She was a step ahead of me. Ginny was silent, I wondered if she was angry with me for my little prank with the pie. I wasn't going to deal with her being angry with me. I grabbed her shoulder and made her stop and face me,
"Something wrong? You haven't said a word since we left almost 15 minutes ago. Why?"
"It's nothing, I'm just planning my revenge. Come on, now. I have something else for us to do".
I had no idea of what she was planning for us this time. Just like I had no idea of anything about this night before it happened. It was really annoying. I had never been a huge fan of surprises, and especially after the war, surprises wasn't very high on the list of things I enjoyed.
Ginny dragged me along down the street with me stumbling after and groaning loud, clearly showing how much displeasure she brought me right now.
"Oh, shut up, Hermione. I know you will love this, nearly as much as you will love what comes after that again,"
Ginny happily said, nearly singing and skipping down the street.
Suddenly she came to a stop, making me nearly bump in to her as I tried to stop as well.
Hermione was confused. In front of them now, was an open field with a few trees here and there.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, trying very hard to mentally figure out any possible reason why Ginny would take me to such a place.
With a giant grin, Ginny turned to face me, "we are going to a place I was recommended to show you if we had the time. Come on now. We have a couple of hours hike ahead of us."
Ginny turned and began to walk in high speed, while I just stood back, stunned and unable to move for a few moment.
"A couple of hours hike? Is she nuts?" I whispered to myself before I ran after her, shouting.
"Ginny! Wait up!"
As I caught up with her, she slowed down her pace, but just a little. I still felt like I was jogging to keep up with her.
"Ginny, would you please stop for a moment. I'm not as quick as you, remember? Just stop, please,"
Ginny stopped, and thank God for that, I was already out of breath.
"Sorry, I forgot. I'm used to hanging out with the other girls at the team, going for hikes and stuff. It's rather high speed. Anyway, we need to get going, we got something else later we need to catch."
Ginny turned, and began walking again,
"Wait," I said. "Two hours? Why don't we just apparate there or something? Two hours of a hike is a rather long walk, you know."
"Don't worry," Ginny said from ahead of me, "it's just to make the time go until that last thing we got."
I groaned, but followed at a much slower pace than Ginny was currently holding.
After about 15 minutes, I reached her, she was sitting down on a rock, resting her head on her hand.
She looked up at me when I arrived, completely out of breath,
"There you are. What took you so long?"
I sat down, leaning my back on the rock Ginny was sitting at,
"I…I…I tried…To…I tried to…Keep…Up…With…You…" I barely managed to say between breaths.
Ginny just giggled. "What? I though you would be able to at least almost keep up with me. I think to remember you were rather light on the foot in our school days, and with all the hiking you did during the war, I was sure you would be in a little better shape than this, you know."
I could feel a sorrow coming over me when she mentioned the war. How were Harry and Ron really? How could it be I had lost them this much since the war?
I knew Ron was doing pretty ok, from the few letters I had received from him over the last years, but Harry I didn't know much about. He wasn't in the news every other day anymore, not even once a year, only when he accomplished something huge at work, capturing still active death eaters and stuff. But other than that, I knew nothing of him. I had to remember to write them both sometime soon.
Thinking of my old friends, those I shared everything with for so many years, was enough to almost bring tears to my eyes.
"Hermione? Are you okay? Was it something I said?"
Ginny was worried, I could hear it so clearly in her voice.
I turned to look at her,
"No, everything is fine. I was just wondering about how things turned out the way they did. You know, after the war and stuff."
At this I stood back up and prepared to start walking again,
"But let's not talk about this now. We still have a long walk ahead of us."
Ginny got back up too, and walked to stand behind me.
She was quiet for a moment, probably choosing her words with care before she dared to say anything, afraid of saying something wrong.
Her voice was weak when she finally spoke again, "yes, you are right. There is a time and a place to talk about the war, but this is not it."
She placed her hand on my arm in a calming way. I felt calmed too, but not much. Mostly I felt puzzled, I didn't mention the war, did I?
"Come on, Hermione. Let's move on. I really want to show you this. I think you will appreciate this quite a bit."
The next hour or so, we walked in silence. Neither one of us felt a great need to fill the silence. It felt good just walking like this. The silence wasn't even awkward. I can't even remember the last time when silence wasn't awkward.
"What time is it?" Ginny asked.
I took a good look at her watch,
"It's 5 AM. Why?"
"SHOOT! Looks like we are apparating from here. Take my hand."
I obliged dutifully and grabbed Ginny's hand.
Within a second they stood before a huge statue. A memorial.