Chapter 6 - Try and Take it Well

'So Hermione, where did that come from earlier?' asked George as he strolled casually into the small circle of chairs surrounding the fire, clutching a butterbeer in his right hand.

Night had fallen many hours ago, but the inhabitants of the Burrow were still sat around outside. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Angelina had managed to snag the area around camp fire.

'Yeah, I've been wondering that,' Ginny said turning in Harry's arms to face Hermione, 'it's not the sort of thing you do!'

At the abrupt change of subject, Hermione's face flushed a deep red and a dark look crossed her face.

'I was just so, so mad!' she suddenly burst out, shaking, 'How could he have done that?! To his sister and his best friend?! Knowing full well what it would do to the both of you! Unless he was just being so bloody thick again! But then again when has he ever been anything else?!' she ended very high-pitched.

Harry, Ginny, Angelina and George all stared at Hermione; very, very rarely did she ever loose control and never, ever was it quite this bad. Sure, she got annoyed at Ron, and then she would start ranting and raving about him. But this wasn't quite the same.

'Hermione-' Ginny began, reaching an arm out, trying to calm her down, for now her hands had balled into fists, but Harry stopped her.

'It'll be good for her to let it all out. Trust me,' he added when Ginny still didn't look too convinced.

'Urgh!' she continued, thumping the ground with her fist, 'And did you hear him earlier? Saying he was just jealous, of Harry. Harry of all people!'

'I don't think she means it in an offensive way,' Ginny muttered to Harry under her breath.

'And then he involved me! Well, he never actually mentioned me,' she reasoned, forgetting to yell for a second, 'but he might well have done!' she shouted, firing straight back up again, 'He said, no yelled, how perfect your two lives are now! I mean he acted as though neither of you are upset about anything! It's not like you two just spent nearly a year apart! Oh no!'

Harry glanced shiftily down at Ginny. Even with only the slight glow from the fire he could see she was also looking uncomfortable. He hadn't expected Hermione to start on them. Not that she was saying anything horrible, but it still wasn't altogether pleasant.

'Urgh! Could you really have expected me not to hex him? I mean you two hexed him too, Ginny and you Angelina! But honestly, I don't see how on Earth doing that was meant to make his life any better. Did he really think by doing that I was gonna' like him more? That I wouldn't absolutely hate him even? That we would be-'

But Ginny cut her off. 'But Hermione, you do still care,' she said simply.

Hermione stared at her incredulously; she seemed rather surprised at being roused from her shouting spree, even that there was anyone still there, listening to her. 'Oh right! Yes! Of course I do! After all of that!'

'You do. If you didn't, you wouldn't still be angry, you wouldn't be shouting. You do care, which is why it's affected you so much.'

And at that Hermione burst into loud, heavy sobs.

Ginny took her gently in her arms, 'Hermione, how about you get some sleep?'

She nodded into Ginny's chest as she took her slowly into the house.

'Ouch!' Harry cried as he attempted to cross the kitchen towards the stairs much later that evening, but crashed into the table.

'Harry?' Ginny enquired through the surrounding darkness, 'Be quiet, Hermione's just through there!'

'Oh right, sorry. Do you know where the stairs are?'

He heard a quiet giggle from somewhere to his left as Ginny's hand slipped out of his.

'Oi!' he accused as quietly as was possible, whilst following the sound of her soft footfalls. He found the stairs and began, very slowly, to climb.

'Omph,' he stuttered as he fell backwards. 'Ginny! However much I love your backside,-' it was far too dark to see either of the red tinges that were surely slipping onto both their faces now -'I do not appreciate walking into it right now.'

'Sorry, Harry. Can you be quiet for a sec? I can hear someone crying.'

Now that his footsteps, too, had quietened, he could hear a sobbing from somewhere above.

'It's coming from up there,' Ginny pointed (though being dark, Harry could not see this gesture) and they both steadily began to climb.

When they came to Mr and Mrs Weasley's bedroom door, Ginny threw out an arm to stop Harry going any further.

'Oh Arthur, oh Arthur!' came a bodiless sob through the door.

Harry heard a small gasp come from Ginny. He didn't think it was right to listen in on something so private, but he seemed to be glued to the spot.

'How could he have done that Arthur? Why? What did we do wrong?'

'Nothing, Molly,' came Arthur's voice, gentle and consoling. 'I'm sure it was nothing to do with how we raised him.'

'But then why, oh why did he do that? Our son, our son?'

Harry had been so wrapped up in how Hermione was feeling, he had barely spared a thought for Mr and Mrs Weasley. Now that he thought about it, he realised it was really rather stupid; they were, after all, Ron's parents. Just because they had put on a brave face earlier, didn't mean they weren't upset.

'Calm down, Molly. He'll come through. He'll realise soon what he's done. He'll regret it. I wouldn't be surprised if he already has. He's been so wrapped up in grief lately, he's not himself. He wasn't in his right mind when he did that. Now, just go to sleep.'

There was silence from inside the room now. Harry continued on up the stairs, sincerly hoping that what Mr Weasley had said was true.