Harry was awoken in the early hours of the morning to the smell of smoke seeping through the floor boards from below. From the corner of his eye he saw a flash of red light from outside the window; glass smashed somewhere downstairs, other wise all was silent. The silence was alarming. He bolted upright, worried about the safety of the others; the slept soundly, unperturbed by the commotion ensuing below them. He shook Hermione awake first he would need her help to wake up Ron and Ginny; Weasleys can sleep through anything. By now the flames were creeping up the side of the house and into the bedroom. "Come on. Wake up, Gin. We have to go!" He pleaded desperately barely getting a response. He tied to keep calm he didn't want to scare her too badly when she finally realized she wasn't dreaming. Hermione had amazingly managed to wake Ron and was helping Ron round up all of their bags. "Come on, Gin. Please."

"Oh, Harry, will you stop; five times is enough," Ginny said groggily, "I'm not always ready like you." She smiled; blissfully unaware of what was happening. Harry was dumbfounded, nearly forgetting the burning building they were in. Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Ron beat him to it.

"What? What the hell did she just say?" He said fiercely

"I—I…" Harry began as Ginny came to. She looked from Harry to Ron, who was the deepest shade of red she'd ever seen him.

"What is going on?" she said still a little sleepily, she apparently had no idea of what she'd just said.

"I swear I didn't, Ron!" Ron looked like he was ready to hit Harry.

"Ron, it's fine, it was just a dream," Hermione cut in.

"How do you know?" Ron turned on her.

"Just trust me, I would know."

"But still…" He continued to protest.

"What's going on?" Ginny looked scared and confused as she noticed the room clouding with smoke.

"I hate to interrupt but I think we really need to forget about this right now before this house burns down with us in it," Hermione interjected franticly.

"Just wait a second, Hermione," Ron was advancing toward Harry; his face still red with anger.

"Well it doesn't matter now we need to get out." Harry spoke up. He grabbed each of them and apparated out before anyone got hurt. The stood in the alley behind the building, the dark mark hung in the sky above, the thick black smoke swirled around it. Whoever started the fire was nowhere to be seen. Ginny noticed it first.

"Harry look!" she pointed to the sky.

"Oh, no." Hermione gasped. Ron hadn't even noticed, he was pacing a circle; fuming.

"The book." Harry whispered walking back toward the flaming structure.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"The book! Damn it!" He apperated away.

"Oh my god. Harry?" Hermione yelled his name with no response.

Harry! Harry?" Ginny was almost in tears. 'He did not go back in there. That stupid...' But he was back, coughing from the smoke and full of soot. "What did you do that for?" Ginny asked in disbelief that he would do something so stupid. She wiped some of the black from his face.

"This," he produced the book from behind his back. It was covered in a layer of ash, but otherwise unscathed. He opened to the part entitled "The Horcrux" and showed it to Hermione. She grabbed the book and smiled, forgetting the fire and dark mark overhead.

"This is great."

"Yeah," agreed Harry. "It must have some sort of protection spell too, not a scratch on it." Hermione had already begun to flip through the rest of the book. "We have really got to get out of here, though. The ministry will probably be coming to get rid of the Dark Mark and investigate this. I don't want to be around for that."

They started to walk. "Coming, Ron?" Ginny smirked.

"Yeah, I'm. I'm following you alright…Can't believe this." Ron grumbled. Ginny suppressed a laugh; Harry couldn't look at Ron.

"Oh Ronald, really now—get over it. Nothings happened and you know it." Hermione was getting frustrated with him.

"Maybe not yet," He spat back at her.

"Ugh!" Ginny glared at him angrily.

Hermione rolled her eyes and kept walking. "Why do you always have to be so difficult?" She asked. This pushed his over the edge.

"ME? ME? I'm difficult? You're the difficult one!"

"What?" Hermione retorted.

'Here we go again,' Ginny and Harry both thought.

"Yes you! You're difficult! Why can't you ever just accept—just admit that YOU ARE WRONG!" Ron was yelling now ignoring Harry and Ginny's attempts to quite him. Hermione was becoming more angry and hurt with every word. "Oh I know I know—because you always have to be just so damn PERFECT. So smart, so pretty, so PERFECT. YOU TOO GOOD FOR EVERY ONE ELSE—KNOW IT ALL! WILL YOU EVER STOP BEING SUCH A BLOODY BIT--" Before he could finish his rant Ginny grabbed Harry's wand from his back pocket and in one smooth stroke cursed Ron. He fell to the ground completely stiffened.

Hermione looked at him, her eyes narrowed and jaw set. She spun on her heal and began to walk. Harry looked from Ron to Ginny. She thrust his wand back at him and tried to catch up with Hermione. "We can't just leave him." Harry called after them.

"Levitate him or something, I don't know; would serve the stupid prat right to be left though." Ginny's answer was a very angry one, she didn't even look back. He complied and levitated Ron's rigid body. He stayed a few steps behind catching bits and pieces of the girls conversation. "He didn't mean what he said, Hermione. You know he's crazy about you; he can just be so stupid sometimes. It doesn't matter."

"But—but it does matter. 'Cause he's right, it is true. I am just a stupid stuck-up no it all." Hermione sniffled. She stopped answering, so Ginny stopped talking. They walked in silence. Harry was afraid to say anything. 'I hate when girls cry,' he thought.

They walked and walked for miles, hours, with no particular direction. They stopped when they noticed the trees becoming larger and more dense and even the noon sun had trouble peeking through. Harry put the still stiff Ron down suddenly and sat down next to him. "We should stop," he said suddenly. Ginny collapsed to the ground with a sigh of relief, Hermione followed her lead. Harry pointed his wand at himself and returned his hair and eyes to their normal colour, then fixed Ron and Ginny's as well.

Hermione was back to her usual self too. "We should probably take the curse off him now too." She did this herself, also erasing his memory of their past seven hours.

He looked very confused as he regained himself. "What happened? Where are we?"

"Someone set that building on fire you passed out from the smoke," Hermione said thinking quickly.

"And we are about fifteen miles from a rural town called Fresburrow," Harry added. "It's a muggle town and our next stop."

"Oh," he was obviously still confused. They stayed resting for a while and then as suddenly as Harry sat down he got up and started walking again. "If we keep moving we could get there by sun down."

"Ugh," Ginny complained, "Can't we just apperate there or something?"

"No, it's too easy to track. Do you know how many people are probably looking for us? It's bad enough that we had to do it once to get out of the fire."

"And back in," she pointed out.

"I had to."

As the continued to walk the trees became father apart again and the warm sun shone on them, lightening the mood immensely. They talked about the past six years, about the family and what their friends were doing now. Though long, getting to Fresburrow seemed much faster than their previous endeavors.

---

Fresburrow was a large, bright, yet still quaint town; a steep contrast from Malumeed. The sun was going down but the town was still bustling with activity, they walked through the main road lined with small shoppes. Harry walked up to a woman in jeans and a green sweater. "Excuse me, where is there an inn?" He asked. She examined the four of them, taking in their unkempt appearance.

"Over on Hillwater," she answered. "Follow this road down to town's centre; you'll see the street sign for Hillwater. The Water Lilly Inn is a few houses down."

"Thanks." They walked on to find the Inn, hoping for vacancy. They reached the centre of town there was a small park and the houses were old, made of a blue grey stone and crawling with ivy.The Water Lilly was just like the others, the glowing lights in the windows invited them in. A vacancy sign hung from the building. They walked in. An old, round, bespectacled man sat behind a desk in the parlor area. He looked up.

"We'd like a room."

"Just one?" The man said suspiciously in a surprisingly high voice.

"Two," Harry said with a smile. The man handed him a keys.

"You'll pay at checkout. You have room four; upstairs two doors down on the right. And room three; right across the hall. The loo is the first door on the left."

They climbed the stairs to their rooms. "Harry, where are we going to get the money to pay for this?" Hermione questioned. He pulled a wad of muggle currency from his pocket. "Where did you get that?"

"Stole it from my aunt and uncle."

"Turns out they are good for something," Ron laughed.

"Which room do you want," Harry changed the subject dangling the keys in front of the girls.

"Um, this one!" Ginny grabbed one and headed over to room four. "Goodnight," she waved playfully as they disappeared into the room.

'I would give anything to be with her again. If there was no war I could be. Why did I ever give her up? Stop it, it's far to dangerous!' Harry fought with himself as he and Ron too entered their room and collapsed onto the bed. 'I can't wait for this to be over.'

Despite the Inn's outward appearance the room was drab and cold. The walls were a dull beige and the comforter a faded floral pattern. "Cheery," Ron said with a yawn. His snoring could be heard only moments later. Soon, Harry had drifted off to sleep as well, forgetting the war and the troubles ahead.