Part 2
When Ron leaves them after another few weeks of wandering and planning and arguing, Hermione is less surprised than she would have liked to be. Ron snapped earlier than Neville and her because all the waiting and isolation are newer to him than to them, because growing up with six siblings couldn't prepare him even a bit to the solitude they have been experiencing so often since they left everything to chase the Horcruxes. It is not a surprise, but it still hurts very much; she hates herself for crying in bed and acting like those whiny girls she despised in the novels her mother used to read to her. Neville tries to comfort her, of course, but Neville isn't the same as Ron, and yet Ron left her – and so she decides not to think about him anymore.
Neville decides to have them take a break to cheer her up and takes them both to the little village they visited some time ago. The ghost there is much more tangible than all the leads they have been pursuing up to now, and it is market day again today.
They wander along the stalls, revelling in the colours and noise surrounding them, admiring the ripe pears and the golden pies. Hermione has slung her arm into Neville's.
The villagers all notice them as they pass, some eying them with open curiosity, others with teasing smiles directed at their linked arms, never in mistrust. Hermione smiles and inhales the scent of Asian cooking coming from the smallest stall to their right; Neville, she feels, is also far less tense than he has been in the last four months. Though he still isn't smiling, the area around his eyes is relaxed.
They are looking at a selection of second-hand books when Hermione notices the stall holders starting to pack everything away, and she can't bring herself to be disappointed at having missed the one they were looking for.
XxX
As they leave the village, Hermione sees a shock of black hair enter one of the houses on the periphery. They stop in front of the old white house that stands in a row of identical buildings, probably reconverted almshouses.
Neville looks longingly at the closed door before Hermione tugs on his arm to make him move.