A/N: Okay, so this took a while.. It's almost a year to the day, actually (last update was May 31st 2014) :O Whooops.. But that doesn't mean I have forgotten about this or you guys, it's just that the last year has been absolutely insane. I'm not going to make a lot of excuses, though. I got a long list of them, and not nearly enough time to write them all down. But the schedule is looking to clear up a bit in the future, so I should be able to post some more soon enough. I can't wait to get back to writing, again :D
I'm not making promises to when the next chapter comes, though. We all know I'm absolutely terrible at keeping the promises I make.
Anyway, I'm not going to drag this out any longer, so here's the chapter. It's from George's POV, this time around.
I was knocking on Hermione's door. This was mainly out of politeness, because I was going to talk to her, whether she let me in or not.
She didn't answer. But I knew she was in there. I could feel her being on the other side of the door.
I knocked again, giving her one more chance to open up the door and invite me in.
Still no answer.
I take out my wand and unlocks the door on my own. She needs to hear what I have to say.
"HERMIONE! I know you are in here! You better come out here and talk to me"
She appeared from the kitchen, holding a half empty bottle of firewhiskey in her hand,
"What? What do you want?"
I just looked at her. This was not good. She had been on her own for less than 30 minutes, and she was already too drunk and looked like a mess. This was not good at all.
I walked over to her and tried to get the bottle from her. That only resulted in me getting whacked over the head.
"Stay the fuck away from me, George. Why are you even here? It's not like it's any of your business anyway."
I went over to the couch and sat down. I patted the seat next to me, signaling for her to sit down with me and talk.
She just had another, rather large, sip of her firewhiskey and went for one of the chairs instead.
Even though she was inside, she lit up a cigarette. She used the floor as the ashtray.
"Well? What is it you want? Talk, so I can get you out of here as soon as possible".
I took a deep breath. I wasn't even sure myself why I were here. All I knew was that something went wrong, and that Ginny was back at the Burrow, crying her eyes out.
"I just want to know what happened. Ginny came to my place moments after you left her in the woods. She was almost hysterical, freaking out about screwing everything up. Care to tell me what she was talking about?"
Hermione just rolled her eyes and scoffed,
"Well, apparently she thought it was a great idea to show me this stupid monument in bloody Russia, not even considering how I would feel about it. And just to top it off, she said she was the one who had given them permission to build it, because the stupid ministry couldn't be bothered to try hard enough to find me and ask me themselves".
Oh shit. This was worse than I thought. I walked over to the chair she sat in and sat down on the armrest. When I was about to sit down, she just got up and walked away from me. Okay. This was going to be difficult, but I needed her to listen to me, so I walked over to her and snatched the bottle out of her hand and dragged her back to the chair where I pushed her back in. She was protesting loudly, but I just ignored her. I needed to be hard on her if she were going to listen to me.
I leaned over her in the chair, one hand on each armrest, trapping her in the chair. She was pissed off. I feared that she might kill me.
"Now you listen to me, you little twat. Ginny didn't do any of it to hurt you. The ministry looked for you for more than a year without finding you. Eventually they had to find someone who were willing to make a decision on your bloody behalf. Ginny was your best friend, she knew you better than anyone, that's why she was the one to do it. She believed this was what you would have wanted. She believed, and still believes, that you would want the world to remember what happened, that they needed a reminder of everything that happened to keep it from happening again. She came up with the idea of including Dobby on that memorial because she knew you would be upset if he weren't there after he saved your bloody lives. I don't know why nobody else thought about it, but she did. She knew it would be important that he was there too. Equal to all of you other meatheads. She took you there because she wanted to show you how much you matter to her. She loves you so much, Hermione. I have never seen anyone love someone the way she loves you. But right now, the way you are acting, the way you just treated her, you don't deserve her. And if you don't suck it up, then maybe she's better off without you".
I stood up again. I was angry with her right now. She had hurt my little sister. But no matter how angry I was, even I knew the last part there was over the line. There was nobody in the world I would rather have my sister spend her life with, than Hermione Granger. I knew there was no way Ginny would ever be better off without Hermione. I knew how much suffering my dear little sister had been trough over the last few years because she was too much of a chicken to suck it up. But I needed Hermione to understand what she was doing, what she was throwing away if she didn't suck it up.
But nothing in the world would ever prepare me for what came next. Hermione was up in my face, just millimeters away from me. Her voice was ice cold when she spoke,
"Boo, fucking, hoo. I hurt her feelings by letting her know how I felt about being treated like a child, not even being able to decide if a 20 foot statue of me were to stand in the middle of BLOODY RUSSIA for eternity. Guess what, she broke my heart 7 years ago when she told me she never wanted to see me again, when she told me she held me personally responsible for Fred's death. She broke my heart when she sent me the first letter. Again when she sent me the second letter. Not to mention every time she didn't answer any of my letters to her. Oh, and let's not forget about every time she sent you, or one of your brothers to check if I were still alive, instead of showing up herself. You know what, I'm sick of this bullshit. I'm not going to let her just walk back in to my life like that. It's not fair that she gets to do it. Maybe I'm better off without her."
I was in shock. I had never heard her talk like that before. Not so cold and careless. This was even hurting me. I was not sure how I would fix this, but something had to be done. I had to try again tomorrow. I knew there was no way I would be doing anyone any good tonight. Not with Hermione drunk and Ginny with a broken heart back home.
Without another word, I just turned around and left. As I closed the door behind me, I could hear Hermione yelling
"Cowards. Both of you",
at me, before she threw something at the door. Probably a bottle, because whatever she threw, it broke. I'm guessing the bottle was empty too.
From the hallway, I apparated back to the burrow, where I found Ginny curled up on the couch, resting her head in our mothers lap.
I went over to her and sat down on my knees next to her on the floor. I kissed her on the forehead and stroked my hand over her hair,
"How are you doing?"
Ginny just sniffled and wiped away her tears.
"Okay. Come with me, will you? I've just talked to Hermione. I think you need to hear what she had to say".
Ginny stood up and waited for me to show the way,
"Just go ahead outside, will you? I'll meet you there in just a minute".
Ginny silently sniffled again and walked ahead outside.
I quickly looked at mom. She seemed to understand what she needed to do,
"I'll go right away. Is it bad?"
She was already up and standing, ready to go. I just nodded at her and headed towards the door to find Ginny.
The both of us disappeared to each of our destinations, she to find Hermione and me to find Ginny.
When I came outside, I could see Ginny sitting on the hill, watching as the sun was rising. She wasn't shaking any more, just sitting there. When I approached her, she just looked up at me, completely calm as if nothing much had happened.
"How are you feeling?", I asked as I sat down next to her.
"Numb".
That was all she said. There was no emotion in her words, there was nothing. She was completely empty.
We sat in silence, watching the sun rise, bringing us a new day. I couldn't get myself to ruin it by talking about Hermione, so we sat in silence, just watching. We didn't speak for at least another hour. Not until she asked me about Hermione. So I told her the story.