Scar Tissuse Chapter Four: Talks Like a Gentleman

Disclaimer: Anything you recongize isn't mine. So there. AN: Hello, and Happy New Year! I'm sorry that I haven't been updating and all that, but I have life and stuff, but you should be happy to read the newest chapter, right? Well hope you enjoy it!

Honestly, Ginny thought it was going to be much worse. The fact that Hermione had gotten a letter from Harry asking her to meet him wasn't any reason to be too alarmed. He was, they were fairly certain, crazy. They couldn't be sure if he even knew who he was writing to.

Hermione hadn't written back. She was quite sure what she should do. She knew what she wanted to do was to write him and tell him to never write her again, that she was trying to rebuild her life. A life that didn't involve Voldemort, death, or hunting down the last horcrux.

But there was a part of her that was still Gryffindor, still loyal to the cause, to Dumbledore and the Order. Part of her that couldn't turn her back on her long lost friend. So, she knew what she would write.

Sitting down at the rickety thrifted desk Hermione dug through the draw until she found her old parchment, ink, and quill. Glancing at Ginny, who was lounging on the sofa (wrist in a temporary brace a gift from her latest fight) Hermione began the letter.

Harry,

Ginny and I would like to meet with you, at the museum, at noon on the 28th, the address is attached to the back. We look forward to hearing how your search has been.

Love,

Hermione.

There. It was done. The ink glistened in the orange glow of the desk lamp. It was written, all she had to do now was send it. Draco would do that, he still had owls, he still had a life in the wizarding world. Hermione went a snuggled next to Gin on the sofa, making sure she didn't bump Gin's wrist in the process.

"Well?" Ginny arched her eyebrow.

"I said we meet him, on the date we agreed on." Hermione's voice was tired, the kind of tired that only comes from

"I still say we shouldn't meet with him." Ginny grumped.

"We have to. Look I know that it's going to be difficult for you, what with the little fling you guys had or whatev-"

"It wasn't a fling. He straight up propositioned me, while I was drunk, felt me up, made me confess our secret, and then on top of that told my brother about it." Her voice was outraged, but she wasn't yelling, it was against her nature to yell at Hermione, considering what it had done the last time.

"And in a way it was a good thing, there was no way we would have come out on our own, we needed a little push and that was exactly what he did." Hermione appeased.

"A little push? All I can say was that at least my parents didn't have to witness it. Bill, Fred, and Ron sitting us down, asking us if it what Harry said was true, was bad enough." "I think that your parents would have eventually come around to it. I think your Mum knew, there at the end."

They sat in silence, remembering that summer. The ungodly, unbareable heat, it was so hot that all the windows in The Burrow where thrown open, trying to temp the non existent breeze. So hot that clothes stuck to sweat soaked skin, that even a powerful cooling charm would last three seconds and then fizzle away. The heat had no effect on , she looked exactly the same as she did in the winter. Pale, shivering in the double bed, Arthur's side still empty.

Magically mutated pneumonia, the medi-wizard said. They didn't know if it was a disease sent to kill her or if her grief ridden immune system just couldn't handle the strain of a magical and already difficult disease. She remained ill for sometime, but it was during the summer that Ginny and Hermione had come home to care for her. Standing over pots of boiling soup in 110 degree heat was enough to make anyone want to leave, to run far away to some cool distant place, but the look in 's wide vacant eyes was much worse, so much worse that they felt they could never leave her.

"Here's your soup " Hermione said to her kindly. It was August 12th, a little after five.

But it appeared as if Molly hadn't her at all, her eye's fixed on the magical clock. Four of the hands in the same position, never to move again. Minuets later, after Hermione called her name several more times, Mrs. Weasley noticed her standing there.

"Hermione dear, I'm so glad you're home for the winter-" But she had spoke too loudly, turned too suddenly, bumping the hot soup on to Hermione and all over the floor.

"Oh, look what I've done. LOOK WHAT I'VE DONE! Look at this mess I've made!" Her voice was sharp, loudly hysterical.

She tried to get up to clean it, she was so frail, so weak, so unlike the strong, plump women she used to be.

"It's okay -" My skin is just boiling off "It'll be alright, here get back into bed, I'll get you some more soup." Merlin, Ginny will you please get in here. The clock chimed. Bill had moved from work to traveling. It meant nothing.

"It's almost time Hermione, almost time." Mrs. Weasley had gotten back into bed, completely forgetting the soup, and her earlier hysterics.

"Almost time, almost time." She said again, her voice soothing as if she was singing to a crying baby.

"Almost time for what Mrs. Weasley?" Hermione asked as she picked up the bowl and spoon off the floor.

"You'll take care of Ginny, won't you Hermione? Yes you will, you're part of our family Hermione. You'll take care of my baby girl, won't you?" There was a note of hysteria.

"Yes, of course I will , of course." Gin, where are you?

"Good, good." Mrs. Weasley closed her eyes.

Ginny walked in carrying a large pitcher of water.

"How are you feelin-" But then she noticed how her mother looked.

"Mum?"

The pitcher shattered to the floor.

Ginny removed herself from the sofa, unwilling to dwell on her mother's last moments in life. She looked out the windows of Hermione's flat, watching the slushy sleet pour onto the streets, February was a deceiving month. It always snowed in February, but Gin always felt that after the holidays, it should be spring.

But in never was.

So it was on a mushy February 28th that they dragged themselves down to the solid marble white steps of the Art and Natural History museum that Hermione loved so dearly. They stood alone on the steps, underneath a wide black umbrella, watching the drizzle pour, waiting.

"How long do we have to wait until we can go?" Ginny murmured in Hermione's ear, gently drawing a curl away from her face.

"He'll be here." Her eye's scanning the distance, nothing visible in the downpour.

A wind was picking up, blowing rain slightly sideways, the legs of her Gin dark blue jeans we getting soaked. And Hermione was thankful, once again, that she had invested in getting her expensive but practical forest green rain boots.

In the distance a man was coming towards them, but he didn't look like Harry. His hair was much too long, reaching almost he middle of his back, he had a beard too. He was walking directly toward them though, the rain didn't seem to bother him in the least, he walked on hefting his army type pack on his shoulders. And only when he was less than five feet away did Hermione realize that was Harry Potter, current failure of the magical world.

"Harry!?" Gin exclaimed when stood before them, hat resting low enough on his face to hide his scar, but his eyes, they couldn't be hidden so easily. That vivid green would always mark him as Harry Potter to those who knew him. "

Hello Hermione, Ginny, I'm very glad that you decided to meet with me today." His words were measured, careful, very unlike the old rash, quick to speak first think later, Harry they used to know.

"Yes, well, let's get out of the rain." Hermione ushered Harry under the umbrella, and the three walked quickly to the cafe just outside the museum. The cafe was large, as far as cafes go, and the three rain soaked friends grabbed a booth in the back. Hermione shrugged off her raincoat and observed the young man she used to know so well. He had changed; it was more than just his appearance, but the way he was examining the room, looking at every single face, memorizing the layout of the building, looking for escape routes should they become necessary.

"Would you like something to drink, or maybe a muffin?" Gin asked him, he looked even thinner than when he would show up at The Burrow for the rest summer.

"No, no thank you. I have much to discuss with you both. First I would like to apologize for my past behavior. I was childish and impulsive, and it cost many people their lives. The way I treated people, especially you Ginny, it was wrong. I shouldn't have behaved in such a manner, and when given your trust with a important secret I shouldn't have betrayed you."

Ginny was in shock. Never did she think that she would see the day when Harry Potter would admit that he was wrong. And apologize for his behavior? It was almost surreal.

"Thank you Harry, it means a lot to us to hear you say that. But what is this all about? Where have you been?" Hermione's response came swiftly, she was well aware of his ability to apologize, mostly because he thought everything was his fault. Harry thought for a moment. His glasses were gone. His green eyes were thinking, remembering, formulating the correct words.

"Much of the first five months I spent at a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. It is there where I was taught self control, forgiveness, discipline, among other things. Then I began searching for the last horcrux. The eighth horcrux." His eyes were unfocused. "It makes sense thinking about it now, eight has always been the number of eternity, infinity. It would be a logical number for Tom to choose, with his wish to be everlasting life." He looked back to them, their eye's questioning, wondering where he was going with this

"The final horcrux, is of course, in the shell of the man who is now running the magical world. All I needed to do was to find him, and I would have found the final horcrux. That man proved difficult to find." He stopped, for what appeared to Hermione and Ginny, for no reason. But then a waitress walked up and asked them if they would like anything to drink. One black coffee, one green tea. Harry still wanted nothing. The waitress walked away, and Harry began again. "But I've found him. He's in China. But I can't do this alone, I need the DA's help. I need your help." His last words were a plea. Ginny finally found her voice.

"Look Harry, we left the magical world for a reason. We didn't want to be part of that crazy death ridden place, we're trying to start over, build lives for ourselves that won't be destroyed by the whim of a madman."

"And even if we did want to help." Hermione interrupted. "Everyone is dead, or missing. I've tried to contact people Harry. All of my owls returned my letters, unopened. We're not going to do something like this again, we're not willing to put ourselves in unnecessary danger to help save a world we have no stake in."

Harry thought for a moment. He pulled his army bag into his lap and pulled out a file folder. He slid it across the table to them. "I've located several of the old DA members, including you too, without your knowledge." Black and white snaps shots of them at the diner stared up from the page. "I haven't contacted them yet, because I wanted to have your support first." He looked at them a moment longer. "Tom will not stop at just the magical world. He will continue to invade, you will begin to wonder how come your muggle elected officials are acting so strange, you will wonder when wars start against other muggle nations what was real goal behind the invasion. It will be slow, he will creep into your lives, and the lives of all these ignorant muggles. Many will die."

He took a breath.

"This is not a decision I can make for you, or persuade you to do against your will. But telling me you don't want part of world with a madman in it. Well, you're just arguing for my side. We have the power, the knowledge, the skill, and most importantly dedicated people who are willing to stop him. We are the only ones who can. It is with this I leave you. Please contact me with your decision." With that the tall dark haired man, no longer a boy, took his pack and walked with practiced nonchalance out of the cafe and back into the dark stormy world.

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