Chapter Two

It was almost eight o'clock in the morning, and a pair of emerald green eyes had just opened to greet the morning sunlight. The boy with that lightning-bolt scar, the scar that had caused him so much pain in so many ways, lay in bed for a while thinking. He knew that this was going to be a long, difficult year for him – even more so now that he had lost the wizard who had meant so much to him, who had done so much to help him get through the pain, who –up until five weeks ago – he believed was invincible. Harry had now lost four people whom he dearly loved at the hands of Voldemort and his Death Eaters; he was going to avenge them if it was the last thing he was going to do. A sudden loud snore interrupted Harry's thoughts and he turned to look at his best friend who, as usual, was sprawled across his bed in the oddest of positions noisily lost in his sleep. Looking at Ron, Harry slightly cheered up knowing that although he had lost so many people dear to him, he still had his two best friends, their families and the Order, and they were going to be with him every step of the way.

I'll be damned if I lose any of them too.

With a loud, long yawn Harry rose from his bed and slipped his glasses on. After going through the normal morning routine of getting washed, brushed and changed he walked over to the mirror to see how he looked. He had started making a habit of this recently as, although he knew nothing was going to come of it, he had been living in the same house as Ginny Weasley for nearly three weeks now and for some reason he kept making sure that he didn't look a state. Looking in the mirror Harry knew that there was no point in even trying to neaten his jet-black hair, as whatever he did, it always looked as though he had just got out of bed. While getting ready, Harry had repeatedly nudged, prodded, poked and yelled at Ron to get out of bed – but he still had received no response from his friend. Harry sighed, Well there's only one way to wake this boy up now…

Harry got out his wand and cleared his throat.

"Sorry Ron, but you asked for this," he said apologetically, "Levicorpus!" he yelled pointing his wand at the sprawled heap on Ron's bed.

"Aaaaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!"

Ron was hanging in the air by his ankle and looked absolutely furious, "For crying out loud Harry couldn't you have just woke me up the muggle way?!" he yelled shaking his fist at him.

"Err…I tried to Ron about a million times but you just wouldn't budge…its your own fault!" he replied, trying hard not to laugh.

"Oh for f—well let me down then I'm awake now ain't I?" he cried back.

Harry chuckled as he muttered the counter-curse at Ron and let him down with a huge thud! onto the bed.

"Ooof…cheers…," said Ron, somewhat sarcastically. He had never felt so tired in all his life. Ron had literally climbed into bed about two hours ago after a climatic, energetic yet fulfilling night of passion with Hermione, but he thought it best that this new development was kept hidden for a while. Ron shook his head and stood up stretching.

"Ron!" shouted Harry, making his friend jump slightly, "What the hell happened to your back?!" he finished, with a rather shocked look on his face.

Ron turned around, looking fairly sheepish.

Ah, I'd forgotten about that.

"I…er…well…see my back was really…erm itchy last night so I got a little bit…you know carried away with the scratching…of it…" he replied half-smiling.

"But…Ron its just like long continous lines of your skin torn from your shoulders all the way down to your waist…you can't possibly have been able to –"

"Look does it really matter anyway? It's not that big a deal it doesn't hurt or anything," Ron interrupted sensing that Harry was starting to get a little bit supsicious, "just forget it alright Harry?"

"But –"

"I'm gonna go have a shower" Ron stated over him, grabbing his towel and walking out of the room.

Harry frowned – what was it exactly that his best friend was hiding?

Harry went downstairs into the kitchen to be greeted by a whole table full of food, tea, drinks and people – practically the whole of the Order aswell as the usual clan of Weasley's were sitting around the table and living-area of The Burrow. Harry smiled at them all – he appreciated the fact that they were all there to see him, Hermione and Ron off safely. Sitting down at the breakfast table Harry helped himself to some toast and jam, and as usual Mrs Weasley insisted on feeding him until he felt as though his stomach was going to spontaneously combust. Harry suddenly realised that there was someone (apart from Ron who was still getting ready) missing.

"Ginny…where's Hermione?" he asked.

"She must still be getting changed or something…I don't think she managed to get much sleep" she replied sounding a tad concerned.

Harry sat back in his chair and pondered at this revelation for a moment or two, before the girl herself walked into the kitchen looking as though she'd much rather be in bed than anywhere else right now.

"Now where has our darling brother ickle Ronnie-kins got to?" George asked the room, "the least he could do is be at his own 'hope you don't snuff it' party"

"George!" yelled Mrs Weasley, whacking him round the head with a saucepan.

The wheels in Harry's head began turning and he slowly looked up at Hermione who was clearly avoiding his gaze. Harry waited a while until the twins had left the table to join the others in the living room.

"Hermione?" he began, adamantly trying to get his friend to look him in the eye.

"Hmm?" she replied, suddenly deciding that she needed more milk on her cereal – though Harry strongly suspected that this was just an excuse to avoid Harry's stare again.

"Ron woke up this morning with some strange marking's all the way down his back…do you know anything about it?"

Hermione's eyes widened slightly at this comment, but she took a quick breath and scoffed, "Oh come on Harry, what makes you think I know anything about it?"

"Just that you're both acting really weirdly this morning and I know that you're hiding something from me!"

"I am not acting weird Harry! Why should I be acting weird? You're just being paranoid" she retorted in a low whisper.

Ron walked in still looking very tired and sat down at the table, helping himself to some breakfast – it appeared as though lack-of-sleep didn't affect Ron's usual appetite much. Harry sat back in his chair with his arms crossed looking from Ron to Hermione, then from Hermione to Ron and slowly it began to dawn on him…

"Oh my god…you guys-"

But Harry was interrupted by an evidently mischevious looking grin from Fred, who had sat down with a sudden swoop next to Hermione. He was looking at her with an odd expression on his face and Hermione began to notice this too.

"Um…yes?" she asked wearily.

"I think Hermione that this might belong to you" Fred replied, trying to suppress a snort of laughter.

Hermione gasped as he dangled a black-patterned bra in front of her – though clearly trying to prevent those who were not at the table from seeing it. Her cheeks went a distinctive shade of scarlet as she snatched it off him and hid the bra under the table.

"How did you know it belonged to Hermione?!" Ginny asked in an accusatory tone.

Hermione flapped her hands about looking slightly flustered, "Oh…no no no! We didn't –"

Fred put his hand up to silence Hermione. "My dear sister, let's just say that we Weasley men have a little something called intuition…now they obviously weren't yours because our little sister doesn't wear things like that yet," he began, raising his right eye-brow, "and Fleur…well she would never leave her personal zings lying around like zat and Mum has no reason for a saucy little black number like that 'cos-"

"Actually Mum and Dad are still pretty-" Ginny butt-in only to be greeted with a wild 'Aww gross shut up!' from both Fred and Ron and a snort of laughter from Harry.

"So," Fred continued, (still looking mildly disgusted thus taking a deep breath in an attempt to recover) "due to an extremely intelligent process of elimination there was none other left than our resident Gryffindor Hermione here!" he exclaimed looking thoroughly satisfied with himself.

Hermione smiled at him patronisingly, "Yes thank you Fred for those kind words of wisdom there but we have more important things to be talking about - like how we're going to get to Godric's Hollow safely for instance"

Harry sat forward, placing his elbows on the table and looking Hermione directly in the eye,

"Or you can tell us how exactly such a normally well-behaved young witch can give Ron such extensive scars to his back!" he whispered.

Both Ron and Hermione choked on their morning cereal and it took a while before either of them could speak due to all the coughing and spluttering that followed.

"Keep it down will you Harry!" growled Ron in a low voice.

"What is this? Doeth my ears deceiveth me? Have you two done the business?" uttered George, who while grabbing a scone from the table had overheard the latter part of the conversation.

"About bloody time too" said Fred looking relieved.

"Yeah we were beginning to wonder whether you were adopted Ron," added George, "but every Weasley boy gets the girl in the end eh?" he finished with a wink and a nudge.

Ron's ears had gone as red as the jumper he was wearing, "Yeah alright…you can shut up now" he muttered.

"I just can't believe you guys didn't say anything to me" scowled Harry, "did you think I wouldn't work it out?"

"Oh we're sorry Harry…its just that…well you know there are more important things to be getting on with and we just thought that it would be better if we left things for a while and focused on the bigger issues…like Voldemort" replied Hermione.

"Yeah mate, don't think it's cos we don't trust you or anything, just right now helping you comes first…especially after Dumbledore…" agreed Ron, looking reminiscent.

To their surprise Harry laughed.

"Guys seriously its no problem, if it hadn't have happened soon I would have ended up killing you both – especially after what you put me through last year!"

"Excuse me but I didn't put you through anything Harry, " leaped in Hermione, "it was Ronald here who decided to have his lips permanently glued to a certain Miss Brown – not me!"

"Er hello do the words 'Cormac' and 'McLaggen' mean anything to you?" retaliated Ron with an 'I-can't-believe-you-did-that' sort of look on his face.

"Yes, well…that's different…you deserved that" she retorted, turning on him.

Ron looked as though Hermione had just slapped him round the face. "I did not!"

Hermione scoffed, "Yes you did! Flaunting Lavender in my face every day-"

"I wasn't flaunting her what are you-"

"Deliberately trying to make me jealous you-"

"Oh as if you actually fancied McLaggen-"

"Well if you hadn't got with Lavender then-"

"GUYS!!" Ron and Hermione both jumped with a start, "you were both prats ok?" yelled Harry.

They both shrugged ('I guess…') and gave each other an apologetic look.

"Well at least you've finally got there" said Ginny, standing up and stretching.

The friends however could no longer discuss the topic as a frantic Mrs Weasley rushed over and hurried them along, telling them that they had to leave soon, asking them if they had got everything they needed and informing them that Remus, Tonks and Mad-Eye were going to escort them safely to Godric's Hollow. The trio had gathered everything together within ten minutes and began saying their thankyous and goodbyes. Many an eye was filled with tears - with the promise that everything would be ok in the end.

With a heavy heart, Harry walked towards Ginny who was standing by the gate on her own staring at the ground.

"Ginny?" he said quietly, trying to ignore the lump in his throat.

She looked up at him, and a single tear rolled down her cheek as she did.

Harry's throat had gone dry – he had no idea what to say to her to make her feel better. With a tiny gulp he went to wipe the tears away from her face with his thumb.

"Hey – you'll be ok Ginny…I know you will"

It was silent for a while as she took a deep breath.

"Please come back" she sniffed softly, "if you leave me and this world forever Harry…I'll never forgive you"

Harry's eyes began to water – he was finding it hard to let her go. He took her face in his hands, looked her in the eyes and said, "I love you so much"

As tears streamed down Ginny's face she gave a tiny sob and wrapped her arms around Harry's neck kissing him. He knew he shouldn't be doing this but Harry felt as though his heart had skipped a beat as he felt those lips touch his one last time, he hadn't realised it would be this difficult for him to leave her. Breaking apart and holding her against his chest, he whispered, "I'll be back Ginny – I promise"

"I love you too Harry – more than you'll ever know" she said under her breath. She knew that as she watched him leave a piece of her heart would follow him, and that piece would return when he did.

Tearing himself away from her he solemnly walked towards the others and climbed aboard his Firebolt. Saying their final goodbyes, the six witches and wizards kicked-off of the ground and with one last hovering glance at Ginny, Harry took off, knowing that the last thing he had just said to the girl he loved may well have been a lie.