Revised – 16 July 2009

Chapter 40

"Rain in the summer. I hate rain in the summer." said Ariana as she turned to Harry who was sitting on her bed.

Since the day of the party the weather had turned on the two of them. The others had gone home and the two of them had once again been left alone.

Walking back over to the bed, she allowed him to pull her playfully in to his lap and hold her there for a while.

"It'll stop tomorrow and we are going to be able to go out." he said to her gently.

The time they now got to spend alone together was seeming ever more precious to him. When he was with Sirius, or the Weasley's, or Hermione or even Remus who had come to see him and his godfather, they were always so serious.

There was only one person in the world that wasn't. And that was his love.

Turning her face to his she brushed her lips against his teasingly. In the year she had spent at Hogwarts she had learnt so much about what it really was to court a man. She had expected it to be different somehow to what it was. She didn't know why. She assumed it was just expectations. With Harry she had thought it was going to be all holding hands and butterflies till they were married, but it wasn't. And she didn't want it to be. She wondered what her mum would say if she could see her. She knew her mother would not approve of her kissing Harry as she did before they had wed.

But it felt so right and naturally. It was something she was beginning to understand they both needed.

There was so little good. There was so little comfort in the world as it was for him at times. She would do what she could for him.

But it wasn't just him she was doing it for. She wanted him and she wasn't afraid of that any more. At sixteen she was a young woman.

"We are going to be together when all this is over aren't we?" she asked.

"Of course we are and we are going to be together all the way through it. There was no way I could let you go now."

He watched as she shut her eyes, but when they were opened again he saw there were tears in them.

"You brought me back to life, you know that don't you? It is you who keep me sane."

Raising his hand to her face he stroked her cheek and smiled. It was just the same for him.

"I just want to forget school, him, whatever… can't we go away together?" she asked.

"If only we could."

"You do not think it is possible."

"Not right now, but one day … I am going to take you so far from here." he promised kissing her.

-

"The Order is now a central part of all of our lives, we are just going to have to get used to it."

"Now which siblings need whose advice"

Aberforth and Ariana sat in the garden together.

The return of the Order was laying heavy on his mind and now that he was sure his sister had returned to her sanity for good, he relied those worries to her.

She looked so like his mother that night he thought. She was in her lilac dress, and in her hand she had her embroidery that she had begun since the beginning of summer, determined that she would complete by the end. She was not going to become so focused on the future that forget her past.

"We all need council from time to time." she shrugged.

"Well I would still be more at ease if the past wasn't repeating itself on us." he said to her.

"Wouldn't we all?"

Somehow since the beginning of summer she was being more severe on herself when they were together. She knew who she was and what her significance was in the days to come.

If her and Harry were ever going to get away from there then she had to keep his head on what was important. Getting through the next year.

How like Kendra she was her brother thought again. It was as if his mother was there in mini form. She was so focused at times.

-

"Sirius wants me and him to go away camping for a couple of weeks before school starts." sad Harry to Ariana.

She nodded. When he had come up to her he had looked sad and now she understood why. He wanted to stay but he wanted to go as well.

"Well then you are going to go and have two great weeks of fun." she said to him shrugging.

"You mean you don't mind?" he asked.

She shook her head. She wished they were going to have more time that summer together than they were now but he had to go with Sirius. It was not just her in his life.

"How could I begrudge you time with your godfather? It would be like you having a go at me for hanging out with Aberforth and god knows I do that enough. No, you go on and have some well earned fun. And as ever, when you get back to start the new term, I am going to be right here for you."

Harry nodded. Embracing one another he felt her sigh.

"It won't feel so long as it did the last time." she said to him, though he wasn't too sure she wasn't talking to herself more them him.

As she lay in bed that night she knew without a doubt she could not wait for the new term to begin.

It was going to be hard. But the wait for it to come was beginning to be unbearable.

An: sorry for the wait for this chapter and that when it came it was very much a 'filler' chapter. We get into next year in the next chapter, and with the arrival of Umbridge things take off! Promise.

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