Hi Guys! Sorry it's been so long this month has just been ridiculously busy and I've been a bit stuck with this chapter, I'm still not 100% happy with it but I've had so many lovely comments asking for it that I thought it would just have to do and I promise the next one will be better, thank you so much for your patience and support and here it (finally) is :)
It had been a week since the Granger's had left the Burrow and each night played out the same; Ron would sit in the living room, unable to sleep until some unearthly hour when Hermione would come stumbling through the fireplace and Molly would listen as they crept up to his bedroom. The morning would come and Hermione would eat breakfast with them before returning to her parents for a few hours until her parents left for work and she returned to spend time with Ron and the others.
No one questioned Hermione's appearance at the breakfast table every morning when she went home to bed every night, but there were knowing looks traded between the Weasley siblings. Molly, however, did not find it amusing. Molly was worried, very worried.
By the end of the week she'd had enough of keeping her silence, mainly prompted by a letter she had recieved from Elizabeth Granger via Hermione. But also partially prompted by the arrival of Minerva McGonagall the previous day.
It had been rather a shock when the woman appeared at their front door while they were congregated at the breakfast table, but Molly had quickly recovered and urged her in. It was rather an odd sight to see her eating a bacon sandwich at her breakfast table, surrounded by her ex-students who all seemed to be gazing her in some sort of confused reverance mixed with a slight sense of wariness. It had been a short visit in which she explained that she was giving the students who had missed the previous year an option to return and re-do it if they so desired.
The reason that this visit had caused Molly so much grief, was that all Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed horrified at prospect. When McGonagall had left with the assurance that she didn't want an answer immediately, the three had fallen into a dark silence, and had then retreated off to wherever they went to get some peace.
Now Molly knew that, given the option, Harry and Ron would never want to do an optional extra year of school. Especially not when Kingsley had come over three days prior, with assurances them that he would personally see to it that they would get a job before the year was out. But Hermione, she was so dedicated to her education, the girl had optionally taken a ridiculous amount of classes in her third year!
Molly was worried that it was the fact that there would be no chance of Ron returning that was stopping Hermione.
This was why she deemed the dinner so vital, and why she fully planned on conspiring with the girl's own parents to stage an intervention of sorts.
Molly had sorted for Fleur to cook for everyone that next evening and Bill had strict instructions to send everyone to bed at an appropriate time and allow no shenanagins. With that done, she was stood at the Granger's door, her husband in arm.
The door swung open and Molly was pulled into an embrace by Elizabeth.
"Thank you so much for coming!" Elizabeth exclaimed. It was only then that Molly realised quite how worried Hermione's parents had been by the frantic relief in the woman's voice.
They were quickly ushered in and guided to the sofas where they made small talk for twenty minutes until Elizabeth anounced that the food was ready. They took their places and ate the food appreciatively. It was nice to have good food that she herself hadn't cooked. When she made this known, she got a couple of laughs from the Grangers, but it seemed that their hearts weren't really in it.
They had good conversation, however, which made Molly glad to think that it would be nice to have them over more often. Henry was very much as enthusiastic and intrigued about the wizarding world as Arthur was about the muggle world.
The Granger's kept saying things that saddened Molly however, things such as; 'It's nice to have an insight into your world, we feel so lost about it all', and 'I feel like i don't know anything about your way of life'. Molly tried to think how it would be to know nothing of your child's world and so little of their life. She marvelled at how they could have so much trust as to send their daughter away every year to a world they knew so little about.
It was only when they found themselves back in the living room after the meal that Henry brought up why they had asked them to dine with them.
"We feel so befuddled by it all, we never expected to have a veteran as a daughter, we thought that everything about your world seemed so magical and fun at the start. Then every year she seemed to get darker and more distant and now - I mean - we don't even know what's supposed to be normal behaviour anymore. I feel like we haven't done enough, that we haven't done our duty as parents to protect her. But she never told us anything, not really, not about the fighting. I mean we saw her scars but she always brushed us off about it. Now she seems so irrepairable that we don't know what to do, she seems better with your son, but she doesn't want to go back to school now, and if I know anything about my daughter it's that her education is important to her. I feel like if we could just talk to her, if she'd just tell us about it all properly then - even if we can't understand fully like you can, then maybe we could help in some way. We've been reading books about it, about how to handle relatives coming back from a war, but they don't help with the fact that we know so little about her life since she was eleven." He finally finished with a pleading look, as though they held all the answers.
Something told Molly that Henry wasn't one to make elaborate speeches often, which made what he said so much more heartbreaking. She tried to put herself in their shoes and found that she couldn't even imagine what it would be like not knowing even in the slightest how to deal with a war or to not know anything about magic. It made Molly partially grateful for her experiences in the first war that gave her wisdom on dealing with how her children had been forced to change, how strange it must be to be thrust into it without even knowing it had happened.
"There isn't really anything you can do to help them. Not really. I mean we've been through it twice now. The first time we were barely gone the age they are now. I don't think anyone would have been able to help us back then, you just have to let them deal with it as best they can and be supportive. Hermione will tell you all of it when she's ready, it's probably quite raw for her still." Arthur surprised Molly in beating her to it. But she didn't think he had truly addressed the Granger's fears and one look at them confirmed that.
"I agree with Arthur but I do think we need to have a talk with Ronald about holding her back, I think he may be under the impression that she just doesn't want to go back, I'm sure he'll encourage her to go if he realises she's scared. As for Hermione's school life, we will fill you in as much as we can, it shouldn't be left to her not when she's still so hurt and confused."
The Grangers were very grateful at this and agreed to let Molly and Arthur tell them all that they knew. It took a few hours and by the time they knew it, it was midnight.
"Thank you so much for all that you've done." Elizabeth exlaimed tearfully as they stood in the doorway.
"It's fine" Molly replied hugging her newfound friend. "I would have wanted the same from you had I been in your position."
They had a fond farewell and a promise to meet soon, it was only a few second before they arrived back at the burrow.
They apparated to the edge of the wards and walked in through the back door. There they saw Bill and Fleur relaxing at the kitchen table with two mugs of hot chocolate. Bill raised an eyebrow.
"So how did it go? You're not usually out late." He asked.
Molly and Arthur sat down as Fleur handed them both a cup of chocolate she had poured from a pan.
"Well." Molly replied, though when she saw Bill's face she decided to elaborate. "They are lovely people, they've taken it quite hard though and they needed someone to confide in and they needed a lot of questions answering so it was quite emotional and it took time. They are very worried, as they have every right to be and we are going to be seeing a lot of them in future."
"Good. You might want to go through there though, there's a pair of teenagers who are very anxious to see what happened." Bill grinned pointing at the door to the living room.
Arthur got up first, helping Molly up afterwards. He grasped Bill's shoulder, "Thank you for your help tonight, feel free to stay if you want to."
"Thanks Dad, but I think we're off home, we'll see you tomorrow night." Bill replied, and with a few goodbyes they were gone.
"Time to face the music then darling." Arthur joked.
Molly shook her head with a smile before pushing open the door to see Hermione asleep with her head in Ron's lap. Ron was also dozing off, however his head jumped up as he heard his parents come in.
"Mum? Dad? How did it go?" He whispered.
"Very well." Molly answered, kissing his forehead. "Why don't you take Hermione home?"
He looked disappointedly down at the girl, but agreed.
"Oh, and Ron?" Molly added as he went to wake Hermione up gently.
"Yeah?"
"Stay with her at her parents, it's stupid all this back and forthing, and it would be nice for them to wake up with their daughter still in the house."
Ron blushed vividly but nodded, smiling slightly. Molly watched as he gently nudged Hermione awake, and as she slowly woke, the look they shared was one of pure love and it warmed Molly's heart to see it.
They left, with agreement to talk more tomorrow and when they were gone, Molly and Arthur collapsed on the sofa.
"It's all such a mess isn't it."
Molly turned to her husband, "Yes. It's horrid, and sometimes I think that it'll never work itself out."
"We've done it before." He replied.
"I suppose, I forget it's only been three months."
"I think we've done quite well for three months."
"I think we need some sleep."
And with that they went to bed, the struggles of tomorrow hanging in the distance.
"You're going to talk to Ron." Molly added as they were nodding off.
So there you are, not going to make any promises about the next chapter except that it will be better. Hopefully it will also be sooner as things are slowing down now after a crazy month. Thanks for reading :)