With a loud bang, a rocket bursts into the pitch-black sky and blossoms like a red rose. Its sparks spread far into the night sky and slowly burn up before the next rocket follows its example.
Harry sits down outside on the porch next to Hermione and puts his champagne glass down on the small, wobbly table. "Can you believe it's been two years, Hermione?" Harry asks his best friend, taking a chair next to hers.
Hermione Granger twirls one of her brown curls around her finger and watches the fireworks in the night sky. She turns her head towards Harry and frowns slightly. "Time has passed so incredibly quickly..."
"Yeah, totally. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think about is: I must find the last Horcrux!" Harry runs his hand over his face before laughing softly at himself.
Hermione, however, looks him seriously in the face and puts her hand on Harry's arm. "Do you still have a lot of nightmares?" she wants to know immediately.
Harry gives her hand a friendly squeeze and shakes his head slightly. "They're getting fewer and fewer, don't worry about it. We all have nightmares."
The colourful shower of sparks from the rockets, firecrackers and fountains reflecting distortedly in Hermione's glass, which she still holds forgotten in her hand.
Harry falls silent for a while, Hermione looks at him pensively. He has to get something off his chest, something he hasn't even told Ron because it happened out of the blue. Harry doesn't quite know how to deal with what has just happened. It feels like a tight knot in his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe, think and feel.
"Harry?" Hermione can always guess when her best friend has something on his mind that he wants to talk about. She never misses when his heart is heavy or upset, even if Harry goes to great lengths not to show it to anyone.
Harry clears his throat and finishes his sparkling wine before he starts to speak. "Ginny and I... Well, we..."
"You've broken up, haven't you?" Hermione looks at Harry sadly and squeezes his arm gently.
Harry nods and stares up at the sky, which is overloaded with colour and smoke.
"Are you okay?"
Harry opens his mouth to answer, looks back at Hermione and takes a few seconds before he finds the right words. "We didn't have a... fight. It was just... I came home and... and she said that we..."
Hermione nods slowly. "Time changes us."
"She said she met someone." Harry wrings his hands and stares at the wood of the porch beneath his feet. "Probably on that bloody Quidditch team she's on. She said she might... want to take a break for a little while. I just stood there, didn't know what to say. Yesterday everything was fine and all of a sudden...!"
Harry looks into Hermione's face poignantly, her dark brown eyes gazing compassionately into his light green ones.
"I said, 'Okay, then go. ' And she left! I never... never thought she'd actually... !"
Hermione pushes her chair close to Harry's and puts her arm firmly around his shoulder. Harry leans his forehead against hers. "I didn't know what to say at that moment, I was..."
"... Caught off guard. That's what defines you when something unexpected happens. That you just accept it and later you sort it out..."
"I thought Ginny would know me! Know that I would react like that! But the moment she walked out of that door and looked at me like that, I suddenly realised that she thought I would react differently. I thought she knew me! Well, I thought I knew her too, so..."
Harry puts his arm around Hermione's shoulders as well and the two of them sit close together, wrapped up thickly in lined jackets.
This is what Harry has been missing for the last few weeks. To be able to talk to someone who simply knows him, to whom he no longer has to explain anything, who can guess his thoughts and feelings, who has experienced his past and even helped to shape it. Someone who knows who he was, who he is now and who he will be.
"Harry, do you remember when we were on our own for a while? When Ron ran away because of that thing," Hermione asks quietly.
Harry nods imperceptibly, blowing away a lock of Hermione's thick hair, which tickles his nose gently.
"We worked together, even though it was really hard. I lay awake almost constantly at night and often just didn't know what to do and neither did you ... And then there were these moments when we thought the same thing, when we were so close to the answer... Do you know what I mean?"
Harry leans back a little so that he can look Hermione in the eye. "We were a really good team, weren't we?" He smiles at the memory, at the feeling of triumph when he and Hermione were so close to solving the puzzle.
"It's just that ... I've never had that with Ron. Not even now. We live together and I feel like I have to explain everything to him all the time. Always. No matter what it's about. It's not like I look at him and he knows what I want ..." Hermione falters, seems at a loss for words and leans back in her chair, sighing.
"You're just too fast for Ron," Harry deadpanned.
There is silence for a brief moment before the two of them burst out laughing softly and only regain their composure a few minutes later.
"I'm thinking about..."
Hermione looks at Harry hesitantly, biting her lower lip. Harry realises, can understand why Hermione wants to, but why she hasn't done it yet.
"You want to leave Ron."
Hermione raises a hand, waves it in the air and stares into the distance. What's the best way to explain this? "It's not that I don't love him, but... It doesn't feel..."
"... Wholly. There's always something missing," Harry finished her sentence, because he knew that feeling too.
Whenever Ginny and he had a dispute, Harry felt that Ginny just didn't understand him and he didn't understand her, and this feeling brought a distance that Harry never thought possible.
"I... feel like I can't make the right decision," Hermione says, swallowing hard and leaning her head against Harry's again.
Harry sighs softly, understanding her all too well. "Me neither. I want Ginny back, but what if she's much better off with this other guy?"
"You need to talk to her, Harry."
"Oh, but you're not with Ron, or what's the deal?"
"Well, Ron doesn't understand anything..."
Harry looks at Hermione with raised eyebrows before they both start laughing.
"How lucky for you, Hermione."
Hermione laughs and slaps Harry's shoulder with her hand before they calm down and Hermione becomes serious again. "We need to talk to them," she finally says, looking down at her intertwined fingers.
"I don't know what to say to Ginny."
"What you feel. That you love her, that you don't want her to leave, that you care for her, that she matters far more to you than you can put in words."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, that sums it up well. Couldn't you... for me?"
"I'm not her lover!" Hermione slaps Harry on the shoulder again and smiles amusedly.
Harry laughs, shakes his head and stretches his legs. "Somehow I can't stay serious anymore."
"What should I say to Ron?" Hermione looks at Harry distressed, Harry is silent for a moment.
"That you love him. But it worked much better when you were best friends and not a couple."
"That sums it up quite well too..."
Hermione and Harry sit leaning against each other again and look up at the sky, watching the entertaining fireworks that light up the black night in all its colours.
Harry murmurs quietly, "It's strange, at the moment it's actually okay that Ginny's gone. On the one hand, it's relieving. Sometimes I felt like I was making her unhappy."
"She once said in a letter to me that you're home so little," Hermione explains as her hand moves to Harry's.
"I'm an Auror, there's a lot to do..." Harry says and sighs. Ginny knows that, she knew that he wanted to be an Auror and that he would become one. And she also knew that it wasn't a job with regular working hours! None of this is a surprise!
"Oh... Ron says the same about you. That you love the work like crazy and that you'd live there if you could," Harry said, remembering what Ron had told him only a week ago.
Hermione frowns and pinches her lips together. "It's very important right now. There is still so much to do, takes a lot of time!"
"I know."
From the street, Harry and Hermione see their friends coming back to the house. Ron has his arm round his brother George and they both seem to be laughing boisterously about something.
Harry and Hermione move their chairs apart again, Hermione looks at Harry. "We'll meet up when we've spoken to them, okay?"
Harry nods firmly. "I'll see you at lunchtime?"
Hermione smiles. "By all means! If you get round to it..."
"Always an emergency call when it's time for lunch! All the time! I really suspect the dark wizards know when I want to eat!"
"Hey!"
Ron has broken away from George and is walking towards his best friend and his girlfriend. "Don't fancy blowing anything up? What are you doing here?"
Hermione stands up and hugs Ron. Ron looks at her in surprise. "Did I miss something?"
Hermione smiles at him and gives him a kiss on the forehead. "Yes. But you're used to that."
"Hey!"
George calls out to the three of them with a pack of rockets in his hand, "Come on, guys! These are my special rockets, you don't want to miss this!"
Harry stands up and reaches for Hermione's hand as Ron turns to George and assures him that he is totally in.
Harry and Hermione's hands slip apart again as they walk side by side, following George and Ron to the street, where they celebrate the New Year with lots of noise and smoke, along with many Muggle neighbours. Harry has the feeling of being intensely aware of the past and present in the here and now. All the rockets that light up brightly, illuminating the sky and disappearing just as quickly, remind Harry of all the people he has come to know and how much he regrets that they cannot be with him now.
"Promise me you'll talk to her." Hermione leant against Harry.
"Promise me you'll tell him." Harry put his arm around Hermione.