IN THE KITCHEN

"Wh-what just happened?" George Weasley… or maybe Fred, stated into the silence after Harry had vanished.

The room was full of people now staring at one another dumbly, the insanity of the argument that had been unable to escape, forced to endure, still raw and harsh in their mind's eye. For the scant breath of mere seconds, the only sound that was there was that of Hermione Granger crying and that of several of the female members of the Order including Hestia Jones and Minerva McGonagall, trying to calm the young woman down.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" Molly's voice suddenly shrieked. "What is going on here!"

The youngest male child of her brood ducked his head, his face wracked with guilt and shame, as his eyes darted first away from his mother and towards where Hermione was curled up at the foot of the staircase, before slowly dragging towards his girlfriend… possibly ex after everything.

Luna leaned into Ron's sister, Ginny. Her best friend. Luna's pale eyes were shrouded from his sight, her blonde hair covering most of her face… and that which he could spy was in close contact with his sister's… Ginny's eyes. However, were glaring daggers at him. Dead, if looks could kill.

Ron realized the enormity of what had happened, his mind still reeling that he couldn't understand how he and Hermione had ended up having sex. With a heavy sigh, Ron turned to look up at his mother whose gaze looked worse than all the descriptions that his best… his former best friend, he amended silently, had ever told of He-Who-Must-not-Be-Named.

Gripping the chain that Harry had thrown at him tightly in his fist, the impressions of the three charms digging tightly into his skin, Ron shook his head and allowed himself to be directed forcibly by his mum and dad out of the living room and into the kitchen.

O X O X O X O X O X O

"Ronald!" Molly screamed once the door between the living room and the kitchen had been shut, a quick silencing charm thrown up for privacy. "How dare y…"

Arthur Weasley's hand rested gently on his wife's shoulder, cutting her off in mid word. As the two looked at one another, some silent exchange seemed to pass between their eyes. For what seemed an eternity to Ron, their wills battled until finally Molly nodded once, a gesture Ron might have missed if he hadn't been watching. His mum looked at him one last time, her eyes and facial expression one of disappointment, before she stood from the table and walked over to the sink. He could see her shoulders shaking.

"Son."

At his father's word, Ron pulled his gaze from his weeping mother and looked straight into the face of the one man Ron had respected above all others his entire life. "What happened, Ron? What's this all about?"

Wiping at his face, Ron opened his hand and stared down at the necklace. His first attempt at answering failed, his throat not able to sound out the words he so desperately wanted to say… what could he say? "I don't know, Dad."

"What do you mean that you don't know?" his father's voice, while not hard, definitely was not warm either. "We've just had Harry… your best friend since you started to school, just throw you across the room and near on kill you for supposedly…" Arthur looked at Molly before sighing. "Supposedly stealing Hermione from him."

Ron was already shaking his head. "No. I didn't steal her. I couldn't. She's in love with him as much as he is… was, maybe, with her."

He watched as his father's eyes narrowed in confusion, the wheels inside trying to work out what was going on. Ron knew, the information didn't make sense. "I don't…"

"Look." Ron interrupted. "Hermione and I were up late last night. She was worried about how things were going to be… on…" He paused. "On the task that Dumbledore asked Harry to do."

He knew he was being vague, but Ron had already betrayed Harry's trust once. He wasn't going to do it again if he could help it. "We stayed up and we…"

"You slept together?" Ron's father asked. They both ignored how Molly was banging around in the kitchen, pulling things out of the pantry only to return than after only a few moments..

He shrugged, his eyes never wavering from his father's. "I'm not sure…"

"Not sure!" His mother turned, her face scarlet. "You do something like… like… like this and you say you're not sure! You are not the kind of man I raised you to be. Not at all!"

Ron shrank under his mother's verbal assault. His father had stood to try and block the woman from reaching him, only barely able to deflect her arm, brandishing a rolling pin at his head.

"Molly!" He screamed. "That will be enough!"

Once calmed down… well… at least not trying to literally take the son she brought into this world back out of it, Ron's father sat back down in front of Ron. Afraid to look anywhere near where his mum was standing, her breathing heavy, Ron sighed and buried his face in his hands, elbows on the table.

"I don't know, Dad. I mean it." His voice broke and tears filled his eyes. "I love Luna. You know that. I can't understand what happened. I just… I… Dad…."

Arthur took pity on his son and reached over to pat his shoulder. Ron took the gesture, a beacon of hope, and moved suddenly into his father's arms, wanting nothing more than to be comforted as a child rather than considered an adult.

Surprised, Arthur could only hug his son, his eyes darting to meet his wife's as they both looked on in obvious worry. Refusing to let Ron go, he sighed as he spoke quietly. "What do you remember? Tell me everything."

Ron nodded, his breath heavy. "We were talking. It was about an hour or so after everyone else had gone to bed. Hermione was upset because Harry had supposed to arrive already and he was no where to be found… no one was talking."

"Right. Go one." Arthur encouraged.

"We were sitting there eating the cookies and milk Mum had left for her and…"

"Cookies?" Molly's voice came from the right. Involuntarily, Ron flinched at his mother's voice. "What cookies?"

Arthur turned to look at his wife as Ron pulled back and glanced back and forth between his parents. "The pumpkin cookies you left in Harry's room. We figured that you'd left them there for him when he'd arrived…"

Molly was shaking her head side to side. "I didn't leave any cookies in his room… I haven't even made pumpkin cookies lately."

Before Arthur could wrap his mind at the implications, Ron was standing with a look of sheer determination plastered across his features. "We were set up."

"Now… wait just a moment…." Arthur tried to reach for his son's arm, but he'd already moved.

"Don't you see…" Ron's voice grew louder. "I didn't betray him… Hermione didn't…"

"Yes we did."

Everyone in the kitchen stopped at the voice. Turning, they found Hermione standing in the open doorway. She looked horrible… as if her world had crashed down around her. Molly noted sadly that it probably just had.

Ron looked bewildered. "Herm. How can you say that! We were under a spell or something… Harry'd have to understand that."

The bushy-haired girl shook her head, the tears had stopped but her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks stained by their falling. "Ron… we slept together. I just gave up my… my virginity to you… something that I was saving for him… for my Harry."

Ron started to draw closer, but at his movement, Hermione stepped back in order to keep distance between them. Seeing what she'd done, Ron stepped away from her, allowing for as much room to be between them as she wanted.

"He has to believe us… you… me." Arthur looked at his son as he said those words, realization that the enormity of what had happened not having sunk in all the way yet.

She ran her hand over her face. "Ron… "

"Hermione." Ron's father held his hand up to forestall her answering. At her nod, he turned and looked directly at his son. "Imagine catching Neville and Luna together."

Ron barked a laugh. "Never happen in a million years. Luna loves me."

"Like Hermione loves Harry?" His father countered.

Ron started to respond, but stopped after he opened his mouth. He tried several times before tilting his head and meeting his father's gaze. "But it was forced… we didn't mean for this… he can't blame us… we've got to make him understand." The last word was almost pleading.

"Why?" Hermione asked as she opened her hand to stare at the necklace. Ron noted that the promise ring was not on it as well as the charms. "We force him to live with the fact that you and I were together and its okay since it was forced?"

Ron nodded. "You could make him see it was the truth. It didn't mean anything."

At his words, Hermione sighed and the tears started to fall again. "Will you let Harry shag Luna to make up for it?"

Even Arthur and Molly were shocked at her words. Ron backed up until he hit the cabinets behind him, his eyes never leaving Hermione's earnest face. "What? Why?"

Closing her eyes, she moved over to sit at the table, her body falling hard into the chair. "Ron. I love you. You are my best friend in the whole world, but you're not getting it at all."

Ron looked helplessly at his parents, his whole face showing that he didn't understand. Molly went over to Hermione to offer her a hug, but Hermione flinched as the woman approached, her eyes sad. Ron's mum looked heartbroken.

"I want to go home." Hermione said finally. "Can someone take me home, please?"

Arthur looked at her, not knowing what he could possibly say to make things right. "What about the Order? You and…" He gulped. "You and Harry and Ron were going to talk about something important… about defeating Him."

Ron looked sadly over as his friend shook her head. "I convinced H-Harry to trust the Order, to tell you what we had planned." She twisted at her hair. "I can't tell it. Neither can Ron. You'll have to convince… to get Harry to tell you."

"Hermione…"

But the girl stood, her face tight to keep from crying any further. "I need to go home and explain to my parents that I just royally fucked up my life."

As she moved to go out the door, Molly once again tried to draw the younger female to her to offer support. Hermione refused it all. "Dear…"

Hermione interrupted. "Someone needs to go after Harry. To stop him. He's going to try it all on his own now." She sniffed. "He's alone now.

"What is he doing?" Arthur asked.

"He's going to try and kill Voldemort." She responded simply before she walked out of the kitchen.

O X O X O X O X O X O

The meeting had pretty much ended before it had ever started after the show that had been put on. Those that were staying at the Burrow quickly and quietly slinked away to whatever room they could hide in, trying to be away from any further fallout that might occur, while everyone that had an excuse or reason to leave were out the door without a goodbye. But for those that should be there and one, the Burrow was peaceful again.

So ii was with a heavy heart that Hermione Jane Granger, the almost daughter of Molly Weasley and the almost promised girlfriend to Harry Potter, walked out of the kitchen and up the staircase to the room she shared with Ginny, conspicuously absent, and slowly packed her suitcase, leaving a note for Ginny to inform Ron to keep her pink pajama bottoms that he had mistakenly put on in the rush this morning to catch Harry.

Was it just this morning? It seemed like so much longer… years, maybe. Hermione glanced at her watch to see that it wasn't even past noon, yet. Her world had crashed in the matter of moments as her mind forced her to relive seeing Harry this morning…

There'd been a quick knock on the door. Hermione had known something was wrong when the intruding knock had come from towards the foot of the bed rather than to her left as it would have been if she'd been asleep on her cot in Ginny's room. She'd shifted then, the warm pressure of another body in bed with her and she'd smiled immediately in her sleepy haze, the thought that she'd fallen asleep and Harry had joined her in the bed… a tradition they'd started during their sixth year when she'd keep his nightmares from returning.

But something had been different. Wrong. It the fraction of a moment her mind had to take, Hermione felt that she was nude under the comforter, as was the very male body snuggled in spooning behind her. Worse, however, had been the slow realization of the ache she felt between her legs.

It took that moment for the dots to connect.

In fear, Hermione tried to pull herself out of Ron's grasp, his voice mumbling Luna's name in obvious displeasure at being jostled around so early in the morning. Morning! In that instant, Hermione realized that it was Harry opening the door.

Hermione wiped at the fresh tears that she knew were running down her face at remembering the look in Harry's face when he'd found her… his girlfriend and (as she knew know) soon to be promised love, fighting for the blanket to cover her shame which only brought in stark view that his best friend had been in a state of similar undress in bed with her.

She'd expected to die in that moment. No. She'd prayed to die, but death was a luxury for the virtuous… something she could no longer acclaim to be. Her vow to the love of her life broken forever, never to be regained.

Harry had turned and left, the door slamming, ignoring her call for him to wait, not that she could blame him. Ron had been a flurry of action, his hands moving to grab discarded clothing along the floor to cover himself and give chase.

She'd know, even then, that it was over and that everything was broken.

Sighing, Hermione lifted her suitcase from the cot and moved out the door, her footsteps echoing lightly in the quiet house. She made her way down the stairs where Hestia Jones, an Auror and Order member, waited patiently for her at the fireplace.

"We're going to Floo to a safehouse and then drive you home." The older witch offered.

Hermione only nodded. Her parents were expecting her to call and tell them about the promise ring. Grimacing, Hermione pulled out the necklace and fingered the ring she'd placed around her neck… a constant reminder of what she'd lost, as she nodded again silently.

As they drew closer to the magical flame, a voice called for her. "Hermione! Wait!"

Turning, she watched as Ginny bounded out from the kitchen, her hair flying madly behind her. Hermione waited as the smaller girl bent over to catch her breath, apparently having run a distance to catch her in time.

Ginny finally stood and looked at her solemnly. "Mum told me about the cookies." She paused for breath. "I'll find out what happened for you."

Hermione realized that Ginny was trying, so she therefore attempted to smile in appreciation. "Thank you. Make sure you let Ron know whatever you find."

The small redhead quirked her left eyebrow. "Don't you want to know? I could use your help."

She shook her head and she leaned down to hug her best girlfriend, maybe for the last time. "I'm going home, Gin."

"You say that like its forever."

Hermione shrugged as her fingers reached to her chest and played with the promise ring around her neck. "Maybe it is."

Ginny watched as her best friend took the offered Floo powder and vanished into the green flames. She waited as the flickers of green died away, the house falling to an unearthly silence once again. Turning with purpose, the smallest and youngest of the Weasley's stormed up the stairs to begin her hunt for who had decided to break up the Golden Trio.