My God, is this an update? Rozzy is actually alive? Yes, I am alive, and I am back and raring to go. Sorry there was such a delay, I got stuck on chapter 35 (which is a Very Important Chapter, as I think I have mentioned), but suddenly a couple of days ago I got inspired and I now have about five chapters done. Huzzah!

Having said all that - this chapter isn't very exciting. Sorry. I'm not particularly happy with it but it needed to be out there so we could get onto the important happenings of the next chapter. Anti-climactic, I know, but I promise that the next one will be up tomorrow to make up for it. Something to look forward to!

As usual, thankies go to: Sugarplumjellygum, ProfessorChris, SilverLily1, Sparky Dorian, Halle4, ForbiddenLove7, jazi12amaze, TheWitchOfTheSouth, glowyrm, MusicalMarvel (your huge review totally made my week!), xXMizLilyEvansXx, purelywhite-nami, good-couples, laura-csm, Elise Suzanne, werewolfatemyphoenix, ermireallydontcare, whispered touches (by the way, having now judged your work on HPFC, I am honoured that you like my story), Morning Lilies and 91698padfoot. You guys are all totally awesome and I love you!

34. Slide

Thursday

"Harry! What's going on?" Hermione exclaims as she bursts through the door.

Harry holds up the letter. "I know where she is."

"Oh Harry, that must be such a relief!"

"Yeah," he says, frowning. "Why do I get the feeling that isn't news to you?"

She sighs. "I went there on a hunch and she was so angry… she really didn't want anyone to know where she was."

"So she made you promise not to tell me?"

Hermione looks even more uncomfortable. "Not exactly…"

"Then what?" His voice starts to rise. "You didn't think I deserved to know?"

"Oh Harry, of course I didn't think that! I just—just didn't want to lose her trust too."

He takes a deep breath. "Okay."

"…What?" Hermione looks as though she was expecting an explosion.

"Okay." He gives a wry smile. "Come on, I'm not that bad, am I? It's okay, I understand. I probably would have done the same thing."

She laughs. "Thanks, Harry."

"It's cool," he says. "Just don't suddenly walk out on me. Girls keep doing that to me lately."

"Girls other than Ginny, you mean?"

"Didn't I tell you about that? This secretary from the office, Isobel, came over to help with my filing…"

Hermione is silent as he recounts the story, but her mind seems elsewhere.

"Harry—I've just realised! It all makes sense—and I have to go!"

Harry stares at the door as it shuts behind her. "She never could take twenty seconds to explain herself."

I recently ran and judged a competition on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum, in which people wrote oneshots about the day after the Final Battle. I promised to spruik the winners in my next update, so here they are (and you can find links to them in my faves:

3rd place – "Fading Bruises, Eternal Scars" by Jg Rox
Equal 2nd place – "Freedom of Choice" by Moon Hound Hati and "You are in ruins" by xxx-angelin-xxx
1st place – "After the Battle" by amerikanka

You should all go and read them - they were all amazing. If you like them, you can find the other stories entered into the comp at the HPFC forum, in the "Competition: The Day After The Final Battle" thread.

Shameless plug over. Review!