CHAPTER FIVE

At the airport, I was struggling with Hermione's baggage and dragging Ron who saw it fit to stop and point like a maniac, "Oooo Harry look at that! A door which spews out candy to muggle children. You suppose they accept galleons?"

Once or twice, I was quite tempted to ask a bobby to pick up a red-headed gangly raving lunatic in front of a candy machine in terminal 3. Save for Hermione dropping an unexpected kiss on my cheek. At my questioning glance she tells me, "That's for being patient with our little boy." Then looking pointedly at Ron who was trying to walk backwards on a walkathon going forward. Stranger still that I suddenly felt warm inside when she looked at me with such pride as she said the words, "our little boy" like Ron was our son. A very clumsy sort of progeny I know but in a sick twisted manner is mine and Hermione's. My introspection being rudely cut short by a yelp from the walkathon and "our boy" being given all sorts of angry stares by people he nearly tripped when he fell down.

At the gate, Ron gave Hermione a really long hug. "I suppose it would be too late to ask you if you'd reconsider. You could marry Harry instead if you fancy the idea. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Luckily, Hermione found this humorous "Ron, what's it with you and matrimony."

"Well, you wanted to go off and save the world. But you don't have to save the entire world for everyone. You just need to be someone's world and you would have saved a sad old chap from a life of emptiness. That's very heroic as well, don't you think so."

Hermione gives Ron a chaste kiss on the lips and I look away unable to stand the heavy weight on my chest at the sight. As they pull apart, she reaches out for the back of Ron's neck and they stay there forehead to forehead as she speaks brokenly in whispers, "Ron my brother. You're my best friend. I'm glad to know that you found that with Luna but I think it's about time we journeyed in life apart from each other."

I hear a sniff from Ron and he looks away. "I'm just going to go and grab a bagel at the coffee shop we just passed. I'll be back before your hoarding."

"Boarding not hoarding." I correct him and roll my eyes at Ron for thinking of food at a time like this.

Surprising as it seems, I turn and see Hermione biting her nails while clutching her tummy following Ron's path. I turn her towards me and peer concernedly at her face, "You okay sweetie?"

"You think he's going to be okay? Ron I mean. I'm a litte bit worried about him Harry."

I see her shiver and I try to warm her arms, "Just give him something to chew on and he'll be fine. As for you, you seem ill? Are you feeling alright for this trip? I'm worried about you sweetie."

Hermione reaches up to put a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to steady herself while on tiptoes. She scans the crowd for any sign of Ron. "You think it is wise to just let him roam about unsupervised? Maybe you should go and look for him while I wait for you here. He might get lost or into trouble or...hang on a minute, did you just call me 'Sweetie'?! Twice."

"I did?" Drat! And I thought she didn't hear that. She was tapping her shoes quite manically so I better own the truth, "Oh yes. I have haven't I? Nasty little buggers these other commuters are, don't you think so? Let's not worry about Ron shall we? He's a fully-grown adult and if this is not a good time to release him into the wilderness of muggle life, he'd end up us nutty like his dad."

By this time, Hermione has stepped away from me and had her arms crossed in front of her. Squinting menacingly, she utters the one word I dread, "Why?"

"Well that's what muggles and wizards do. They grow up and prove themselves capable to survive in life. You know Darwinism or some such idea." As she was looking as forbidding as McGonagall and the last time I was at the receiving end of such a stare from Hermione was when Ron and I got knackered, singing the Hogwarts school song at the top of our voices, I better find an answer suitable enough for her question. Fast. God knows why that word slipped out of my mouth. "Well, I just wanted to get your attention, that's all."

Still looking displeased but a bit more accepting, Hermione gives me a stare as if to say everyone has gone absolutely loopy on her. Instead she says, "Well, don't make a habit out of it. People might get the wrong idea. You used to call Ginny that."

"By people you mean Rita Skeeter and her rabid readers of total rubbish? I'm not too fussed actually. Let them think what they want to think."

"I meant Ginevra, Harry. Honestly, haven't you boys gotten any sense at all?!"

Realization dawned on me at the implication of such an innocuous word slipping into my statements unbidden. But I'm utterly flummoxed by why I'm not upset for Ginny to think the same thing. Would it be so terrible? It should be. I am supposed to be in love with her aren't I? Or maybe, I'm not. Maybe I just think I am because it's what people expect. While all this dialogue goes on in my head, Hermione smirks at the shock on my face thinking that I've managed to be clued in. But her interpretation of the shock on my face was totally off. "I see that all the lights have finally been switched on in there. Harry please don't mess it up with Ginny again okay? You were great together and I haven't seen you happier since our 6th year."

I jam my hands into my jean pockets, "Things were different then 'Mione." Inwardly I wonder why she's pushing me to pursue Ginny. My mouth being faster than my brain has somewhat managed to blurt out, "Why do you want us to get together so much? Stop! Don't answer that if you don't want to." All the while silently praying, "Please give me an answer. Please."

Just when I thought she wasn't going to reply, she starts on what seems like the middle of a proper response, "Because I know what it's like to wait and know how painful to know its futility. And if there's a chance that I could try to make the outcome different for the people I care about the most, then I'm sure as hell would try to do something about it."

The airport speaker crackles to life calling Hermione's flight for boarding. I held her hand and wanted so much to know what she meant. "Who is it? Is it Ron?"

She laughs and the air carries that sound as it becomes a permanent fixture of my memory, "Harry, have you finally gone daft? I have to go. I'll write you when I'm settled in."

Then she was gone. Swept away by a flurry of luggage and drab-looking foundation people. Then there was that odd painful clenching in my heart again. I was nearly doubled over. I put my right hand to my chest and with my left grasped a nearby pole for support when Ron shows up, "You alright Harry?"

I straighten up and pretended that I pulled a shoulder muscle, "Yeah. Yeah. Spectacular. Must've pulled a muscle lugging Hermione's stuff through Heathrow. Where've you gone off to?"

"Not far. I just hate 'goodbyes' that's all." Then he puts a brotherly arm around me and says, "Looks like our girl has really left us and it's just you and me buddy."

"Yup just you and me." I echoed emptily.