A/N: Sorry it took a while to update, I've been really busy finishing my studies. I have now finished (YAY!) and will have more time to focus on this. Thanks again everyone for the reviews and please keep them coming. I am also after a Beta Reader so if anyone is interested or you know of anyone who might be please let me know.
Chapter 10
I was currently standing in front of my house and it looked exactly the same as it had before I left, red brick, with white window edges and roof. The lawn was cut and the blue curtains my mum loved where still hanging in the windows, the rose bushes in the garden were in full bloom and the same old welcome matt lay at the front door.
"It's still theirs." I muttered as I took in the house, "Mum loved those curtains and dad would never that old matt at the door."
"That's brilliant," said Ron genuinely pleased.
We slowly walked up to the front door and I reached under the matt to find the Key I had left there.
"What on Earth?"
"It's the key to the front door. I wasn't all that concerned about Muggles breaking in and as I can see by your reaction, I was right to assume a pureblood wizard would have no idea to look under that matt for a spare key."
"Muggles leave keys to their house at the front door, where anyone could get it?"
"As I said I wasn't concerned about muggles getting in, I was concerned about Death Eaters. Before I left I put a protective enchantment on the house making sure that magic wouldn't work to unlock anything, only muggle methods of unlocking windows and doors would work."
"You really are a genius Hermione."
I unlocked the door as quietly as possible and opened the door a couple of inches, there was no noise coming from inside and I hadn't been blown away from the door yet, so taking that as a good sign I continued to push the door open.
The sight before me broke my heart, the furniture had been thrown around the room, photo frames where smashed on the floor, the TV had been smashed and painted on the wall, in what I truly hoped was red paint, was the word "MUDBLOOD."
My legs turned to jelly and I fell to the floor only a few feet inside the entrance, though the outside looked immaculate as it always did the interior of my parent's house had been destroyed. I couldn't see clearly through the liquid building up in my eyes, I could feel my limbs shaking uncontrollably and I was trying not to choke on the object obstructing my airways. I lifted my sleeve with my shaking hand and glanced back and forward between the word on my arm and the one on the wall before I felt Ron's arms scoop me up of the floor.
He placed me on the couch, which he must have righted because I had seen it on its side only moments earlier, before continuing to make his way around the room waving his wand and muttering under his breath. The tears were now freely falling from my eyes but I used all the strength I had to hold back the sobs threatening to escape my lips. From my position on the couch I started to repair the photo frames around the room and hang them back on the walls, I was in none of them.
"I'll be back in a minute," Ron began, "I'm going to check out the rest of the house, make sure it is safe and all."
"I'll come with you." I said, raising myself from the couch.
"No, stay here, where I know it is safe. I'll be back in just a minute."
"Ron, I'm not going to let you risk your safety while I say here doing nothing, I'll go."
Ron walked over to me and kissed my cheek, "Please stay, I'm here to help, remember?"
Sighing in defeat I curled up on the couch again and Ron headed upstairs. As I looked around the house I noticed that nothing had been taken, just damaged. Not that there was much left here, just furniture, appliances and a few photos. Anything a wizard would want, such as jewelry my parents would have taken with them, after all they had moved away, I'm surprised they didn't get rid of this house all together.
I got up to have a closer look at the writing on the wall, it was blood, I had seen enough of it over the last year to know exactly what had been used to paint the word on the wall. At this realization I began to panic, what if my parents hadn't left in time, what if they never made it to Australia. I stepped away from the wall and backed into something solid, with an impressive scream I whirled around and came face to face with…Ron.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
"R-Ron, its b-blood."
"I know"
"M-My parents, w-what if they n-never…" I couldn't finish what I was trying to say, I was hysterical and finding it difficult to breath.
"It's not your parents blood." Ron tried to comfort me.
"You don't know t-that, they may not have left in t-time."
Ron pulled me into him and I buried my face in his chest as he spoke, "Hermione, your parents definitely left, there is nothing here, no clothes, food, personal items, nothing, they must have just left the furniture and stuff because they kept the house."
"You think they are safe?" I asked
"Yes I do. They moved out of this house, leaving nothing but furnishings and went to Australia, just as you made them."
"What if they were intercepted on the way to the airport, what if they…"
"Hermione, please calm down, I'm sure the aurors will find your parents before the day after next and they will be perfectly healthy and happy."
I stayed in Rons secure arms for several minutes, not wanting to pull away and see the state of the house, however I finally acknowledged I couldn't hide from it forever and found the strength to pull away.
"Where do you want to start?" asked Ron
"May as well begin here," I replied before waving my want to clean up the glass and mud from the carpet before righting all the furniture.
It didn't take long to have the house respectable, in times like these I really loved magic, mind you, if it wasn't for magic it wouldn't have happened in the first place… but whatever. We repaired photo frames, the TV, mirrors, dishes, vases and a smashed window. We also removed dust and made sure fresh sheets were on the bedding before Ron and I headed up to what used to be my room.
"I always imagined your room to have more books than walking space," commented Ron as we walked into the incredibly plain room filled with only a bed, a dresser and a little bookcase.
"I emptied this room before I left, I even changed the bed covers to a more neutral colour." I explained.
"Where did you take everything?"
I placed my beaded bag on the bed and indicated towards it.
"You're kidding, you've been carrying around your entire bedroom, this whole time? You should have taken some of it out and put it in the tent, it may have made you feel more comfortable."
Shaking my head I explained, "I think it would have upset me more than anything."
"Well do you want to get it out and make this room yours again?"
I nodded and reached into the bag to pull out a plain and simple black pouch, "This is what I practiced the undetectable extension charm on, before I did it on the beaded one."
Silently I magically took everything out of the pouch and put it back where it came from. I enlarged the bookcase so it covered the entire back wall and my books zoomed into place. I removed the plain beige bedding and replaced it with my purple and white, with baby blue throw pillows leaning against the headboard. My clothes hung and folded themselves in the wardrobe while frames containing photos of Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna perched themselves on the dresser. I enlarged the desk that I had shrunk to the size of my little finger and returned it to the corner before a laptop and loads of little nic nax found there rightful place on, in and around it. Finally my shoes and a few other belongings zipped out of the room and found a home downstairs leaving the black pouch empty.
I looked over to see Ron staring around like he was in a foreign country, it was then I realized that Ron had never been in my bedroom before. He had been downstairs when he and his dad came to collect me before going to the burrow for the first time, but he had never been in my room. I nervously waited for him to make some snide comment but instead his lips turned up into a smile and he turned to face me.
"Your room suits you," Ron said before continuing his survey of the room.
"What do you mean?" I asked nervously, for some unexplainable reason I truly cared what he thought of this room.
"It's pretty." He simply stated
"What?" I asked bluntly.
"It's pretty," re repeated as he looked to me again, oblivious to my confused state, "It's girly but not over the top and it's organized, just like you," he finished while smiling.
"You like it?" I asked, not really caring why he liked it… just that he did.
"I do. Like I said, it's just like you." Ron answered easily.
I was warmed as I realized this as one of Ron's strange ways of complementing me and I moved towards him, my legs acting without direction. He wrapped his arms around me and I snuggled into his chest, staying there for several minutes feeling safe and happy. When he held me with his strong warm arms, it was if he was not only shielding my body but my mind from all the darkness that surrounded out lives, I forgot that we had spent almost a year on the run, that Fred was gone and that my parents were on the other side of the planet. Letting all thought fall from my mind I squeezed tighter and tried to move closer to him, which wasn't really possible.
"Is everything ready for your parents to come home?" he asked.
"I think so." I replied trying to hide my disappointment at being brought back to reality.
"I think we should head back home soon, Mum thinks we are with Harry and Ginny visiting Teddy. Harry and I planned that if we all apperate just outside the boundary around four then we can walk into the house together. She will never know we were out and about on our own."
"Your mum doesn't know we came here?" I asked as I stepped away from him, feeling terrible for deceiving Mrs. Weasley.
"Hermione, you know she would never let us come here on our own. She thinks we're going to get attacked by Death Eaters or mobbed by crowds of people." Ron tried to calm me with this explanation.
I couldn't help but realize he was right. There was no way on Earth Ron's parents would have allowed us to come here on our own. It was depressing to think that we had practically become prisoners because of everything we had done; I always thought that if we could just get rid of Voldemort everything would go back to normal. How stupid and naïve I was to think that. I now see that nothing will be as it was before, we may not be constantly running for our lives and once all the Death Eaters have been round up I don't believe there will be much threat on our safety but now we get all the attention that Harry has been getting for years. It sucked.
I sighed in defeat and looked at the time, "well, we have about ten minutes until we have to meet the other two, lets head back down stairs."
Ron followed me out the door and we headed down the stairs. I took one last look around the place before coming to the conclusion that there was nothing else I could do until we had some indication towards the whereabouts of my parents, I opened the font door and headed down the drive way.
"You're not going to leave the key?" asked Ron when he realized I still had it with me.
"There is no point, I'm going to need it sooner or later." I answered.
"Well then, that makes sense, you're supposed to keep them with you, not at the front door," stated Ron while looking at me like I was an idiot.
I was saved having to give some kind of explanation when one of the neighbors walked up to us.
"Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, thank you so much for everything you have done." The man said as he shook Ron's hand and kissed the top of mine.
I stared in complete shock at the man who I knew as Mr. Anderson, he had lived across the street from me for years and as far as I knew he and his wife were muggles. I had no idea what to say, I was trying to sift through the many questions I had and find the most pressing, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to know the most. He must have noticed my state of shock because he continued to explain calmly as if he were speaking to a toddler.
"Miss Granger, I was going to stop them but there were so many and I new they would kill me in a heart beat. I know that was very cowardly of me but I new that your parents had left, I seen them pack up and leave only days before. When no one else moved in or even came to look at the place I decided to go take a look at it myself but I couldn't get in. Every piece of magic I tried failed, it was like I my first day at Hogwarts, I couldn't do anything. I have no idea how they got in."
When Mr. Anderson finished his rambling explanation it was Ron who spoke first, I was still trying to process the fact that I had lived across the street from a wizard for years and had no idea. "You did all you could, it wasn't cowardly for you not to confront them; it was smart. You're right about the fact they would kill you for trying to stop them."
"Yes well, I managed to put up a silencing charm around the place so none of the other neighbors would hear anything and become suspicious. I've also kept your lawn and garden maintained so the place didn't look abandoned, even though I figured it had been."
"Thank you," I managed so finally get out.
"Well, I best be off, my wife is probably wondering where the hell I ran off to. It was so good to see you home Miss Granger and an honour to meet you Mr. Weasley, again thank you so much for everything."
However before either Ron or I could respond he was gone.
"Well that was strange," muttered Ron.
"I thought they were muggles," I said as I stared across at the house he had vanished into, "the whole time they've lived there, I just assumed they were muggles."
"How long have they been there?" asked Ron.
"I'm sure they moved in the summer before third year, right at the beginning." I answered still deep in thought.
"Well we better get going or we're going to keep Harry and Ginny waiting," said Ron as he grabbed my hand and started to walk down the street towards the hidden footpath we had used to apperate to.
When we returned to The burrow Harry and Ginny were already at the meeting spot… snogging. It seemed they didn't even hear us apperate, as they didn't even flinch at the sound we would have made.
"Harry, Ginny, we're back." I said trying to get their attention.
They didn't stop, if anything the snogging intensified.
"Bloody hell that's disgusting." Ron said as he bent to pick up a stick. He walked over to them looking at the sky and jabbed Harry in the ribs.
Harry jumped away from Ginny and Ron, obviously satisfied that he had ruined the moment between Harry and his sister Ron turned and walked back in the direction of the house.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Harry yelled after him as he and Ginny began to walk after us.
"I didn't particularly want to throw up," Ron answered without turning in their direction, "poking you with a stick seemed like the only way to get your attention without having to get too close."
We walked back to the house in silence, Harry and Ginny slightly embarrassed at being caught, Ron probably trying to erase the image of his best mate and sister snogging the life out of each other and I was thinking how glad I was that Ron hadn't killed Harry. As much as the idea grossed Ron out I could tell he was secretly happy it was Harry with Ginny, I mean he did put that charm around them while they were arguing and he had had ample opportunity to punch the lights out of Harry but he hadn't… yet.