The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships
One Last Dinner Before Platform 9 ¾
Harry sat between Ron and Hermione at the kitchen table in the Burrow. They were happy to sit quietly without moving, but unfortunately, their stillness didn't last long. Mrs. Weasley came downstairs and got upset when she saw them just sitting there. "You three! Everyone else is outside preparing for dinner. I hope you haven't forgotten that this will be the last time we all eat together before you start your last year of schooling." Molly started getting rather emotional and shooed them all outside. They quickly complied, feeling somewhat guilty for making this harder on Mrs. Weasley. Harry and Ron walked over to where Bill was cooking the last of the food with Arthur. Hermione went to help Fleur and Ginny get all the gnomes out of the garden. Fred and George came to help them with the task soon after apparating to the Burrow. Everyone was quick to do their part to get dinner ready under the watchful eyes of Mrs. Weasley.Once the meal was ready they all sat on picnic tables that Charlie had brought out. Harry was sitting between Fred and George. Hermione and Ron were across from them with Ginny on Hermione's right side. Everyone else was spread around them.
Sometime during dessert Fred leaned in toward Harry and muttered, "Once again, thanks for helping us get the business started. It's still being put to use. Remember the new office we put in? That was paid for almost completely with your money from the Triwizard." George nodded in agreement, having been listening.
"It was no big deal. I'm glad you could use it. I sure didn't want that money," Harry said. The last sentence was barely audible, but both twins managed to hear it.
George smiled at him in understanding. "We almost gave it all back, but we knew you wouldn't like to have it. So we put it to good use." Harry smiled back at him, uncomfortable to be talking about it. He quickly started up a conversation with Ron about Quidditch. Next to Ron Hermione and Ginny were talking about how the other Gryffindors they knew were doing.
"Everyone's doing really well," Ginny informed her friend. "Or at least everyone who was still there last year was. All the Houses have half the amount of students that they used to. Slytherin has the very least and Hufflepuff has the most since they, overall, stayed out of the war. A lot of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws didn't come back because family members were killed from their involvement in the war. Same thing for Slytherins, though their families were mostly all on the other side. All the Houses lost some students who went to fight in the war themselves. The majority of those actually came back, surprisingly." They went on discussing different topics about school for awhile longer.
After Ginny finished telling her about how all the teachers had taken turns teaching D.A.D.A last year, Hermione asked her another question. "Ginny, with so many of the students being gone, how were Quidditch teams affected?" Ron and Harry, who had been listening with vague interest for the last few minutes perked up at the question.
Ginny answered with a grim expression. "It was ruined last year. There weren't any games or teams. We could play on the field anytime we wanted but it wasn't nearly the same. I spent most of my time helping Neville and Luna improve."
"Really? What positions are they best at?" George asked; he and Fred listening now too.
"Actually Neville is almost as good as you two are at being a Beater; Luna has quite a bit of talent in Chasing." The others looked surprised slightly at both of those statements. Ginny continued. "McGonagall mentioned at the end of the year that if the schools could get together four teams, we could go back to having real matches next year."
"But Ginny, wouldn't Luna be on the Ravenclaw team?" Harry wondered.
"Not necessarily. McGonagall said that if the teams weren't all separate Houses, it would be alright under the circumstances."
"Then we almost have a full team," Ron said excitedly. "We have our Seeker, Keeper, two Chasers, and a Beater if Neville is allowed to play still. We only need one more Beater and Chaser. That should be easy enough to find."
"Hey maybe if you're lucky Cho Chang has to come back this year too. She was a good Chaser I remember. Back in your fifth year she was so sad all the time, I don't think she passed half her classes; there's a good chance she would have to be there this year to finish up," Fred said.
"Yeah…er…maybe," Ginny said slowly but she sounded doubtful. Something occurred to Hermione.
"Ginny… Did Cho…Did she come back last year?" Everyone stared between the two girls, waiting for an answer.
"Well, no. She didn't." No one moved, or breathed it seemed like, for the few seconds between that and her next sentence, which was rushed in hopes to reassure them all. "But before the year ended we found out that she was okay; her parents just hadn't allowed her to go. They knew too many people who hadn't made it through the summer, and they didn't want to risk losing their daughter. Sorry, should have said that first."
They all glanced at Harry, unsure how he had reacted. He seemed fine though looked really irritated and proved it by saying, "Well good to know that no one else we knew got hurt. But you can all stop watching me; I'm no more worried about Cho than any of you are. My feelings for her evaporated long before fifth year ended." Under his breath, Ron muttered something that sounded remarkably like "Well I would hope so". He was referring to the fact that Harry had been dating his sister after that. No one heard the comment except, some how, Hermione. She reached behind Harry a pinched Ron, hard, on the arm. Rubbing it painfully, he let Harry finish. "Actually I don't know quite what made me like her in the first place; now I see her as a friend. No more, no less." The way he said it, he must have just realized that he had said it all in front of everyone, not just Ron and Hermione like usual. To late now though.
"We know Harry," Hermione said. "I'm just relieved that none of our close friends were hurt. That would've been awful." After that the conversation turned to brighter topics, such as who could possibly take the last two spots on the Quidditch team. Once, after desert when everyone was just sitting around talking, Harry glanced at Ginny; he still cared about her but he wished he didn't for he thought that she had probably moved on.
He was mistaken though. Ginny wasn't even close to moving on. She hoped that one day, she and Harry would be able to work things out between them. But for now that wouldn't be a main priority for either of them. This next school year was going to be too busy to worry about something like that. After all they had a lot on their hands with N.E.W.T.S, watching out for Malfoy, deciding what to do with their lives, and simply surviving another year at school. And all the years previous proved that that wasn't a simple thing to do. So any thoughts of dating were pushed to the back of their minds for Harry, Ginny, and even Ron and Hermione. For now, they were all content in the way things were.
The next morning was started with a loud pounding on the door of Ron and Harry's bedroom. "Come on boys, it's time to wake up!" could be heard through the wood as Mrs. Weasley continued knocking until they got up.
"Alright already Mum. We're awake!" Ron said, loud enough for her to hear. Satisfied, she left to make sure every one else was up and ready. It was 5:30 in the morning, two hours earlier than they had to wake up on pervious years. The train was scheduled to leave sooner than usual for safety measures; because of this, Molly was making sure they got there in plenty of time.
Still half asleep, Harry and Ron rolled out of bed and started their morning routines. Surprisingly, both had finished packing before going to bed last night and didn't have to bother with anything except taking luggage down to the car. With that done, they went into the kitchen to get breakfast.
Sitting at the table was Hermione and Ginny. By the looks of it, Hermione was wide awake and getting on Ginny's last nerve. They both turned as the boys came in and Ginny looked all too happy for the distraction from Hermione's never-ending chatter.
"She woke up an hour earlier than necessary," Ginny explained.
"Ah," Ron said and moved away from the spot next to Hermione, where he was about to sit down. He instead sat across from Ginny with Harry across from Hermione.
Hermione, thank goodness, fell into silence, eating her muffin. "Have you two loaded your luggage yet?" Harry asked them.
Ginny nodded. "Yes. We brought extra pillows so we could sleep on the train though." They all finished their breakfast quietly, no one wanting to start a conversation, even Hermione. It seemed as if she had run out of steam and was now rather tired. When everyone was done eating they went outside followed closely by Mrs. and Mr. Weasley. They didn't see a car, but let Arthur guide them up the road. He took them up to an old, moldy newspaper and had them all gather around. "Mr. Weasley, didn't we just load all of our stuff into a car? Why couldn't we ride in there?" Hermione asked.
"The Ministry would only give me one car to use, but with all of us, we would need two. Everyone," he said, addressing the others. "Grab hold of the portkey." Everybody did as instructed and when they landed there were people all around. Mr. Weasley said something but it couldn't be heard over the other people shouting and train whistles sounding. Instead of trying uselessly to continue talking he simply waved his handed, indicating for them to follow.
When they reached a brick post between the platforms 9 and 10 everyone stopped walking. One by one they leaned inconspicuously against the bricks and fell through the magical barrier. Once everyone was one the other side it was noticeably quieter because of the lack of people. Yes, there were still plenty of people roaming around but when compared to the hundreds on the muggle side, it was nothing. "Your luggage should all be on the train now. You had better get on as well. Come tell me goodbye," Mrs. Weasley said. She hugged everyone at least once and wished them a good year. After waving goodbye to Mr. Weasley they all boarded, looking back at least once.
They found an empty compartment easily(Not many people had come as early as they had and the four of them still had another half hour until things got busier.) Ginny made sure that she saved seats for Neville and Luna and then positioned her pillow against the window and fell right asleep. Hermione did the some a few minutes later. That left the two boys to play Exploding Snap and talk quietly about nothing in particular.
Almost an hour later Neville and Luna arrived together, followed shortly by the train starting its journey. Ron turned to Neville and asked, "Did Luna stay with you and your Gran this summer? Is that how you two came together?"
Luna was the one that answered the question. "No. As it turns out, Dad and I don't live far from Neville's house. We've all spent most of the summer around each though, yes. His Gran offered to take me to the train station because my dad had to go into work early."
"Oh. Did both have a good summer then?" Harry asked.
"Yeah we did. Gran actually took us to a Quidditch match one weekend!" Neville said excitedly.
"It was an excellent game. I really enjoyed listening to the commentary," Luna said in her usual dreamy way. The three of them gave her odd looks, thinking it was crazy that she thought the commentary was the best part. Neville went on to explain the match to them in detail. When the food trolley came they all bought a few sweets and Harry got extra so Ginny and Hermione could have some when they woke up.
The two girls did wake up with about two hours left until arrival. They took the offered candies and joined in to the conversation which had changed to the topic of Hagrid. They spent a good amount of time reminiscing all the dangerous creatures they'd encountered because of him.
Finally, after all the snacks had long-since been eaten, the castle came into view. They all went to change into robes and then got the luggage down so they'd be ready to get off when the train pulled into the station.
A/N: I know; I should have made a better ending. Oh well though, I couldn't find a way to end it with out going a lot further. Hope you liked the chapter and I hope you'll review. I will get the next chapter up at some point. Bye.