Chapter 19...

The next morning, Jane woke up and went as usual to the garden, to see John and make plans for the day.

"Had a good night's sleep?" asked Jane sipping her coffee. John was reading a newspaper and continued doing so as if he didn't hear her speak. Jane sat there enjoying her coffee and the weather and after about 10 minutes, she spoke again.

"So, where are we going today?" she asked.

"Nowhere," replied John, there was a clear undertone of disinterest in his reply.

"What?" asked Jane surprised.

There was no response from John again. Jane sat there for a few more minutes and after realising that the silence was there to stay, she got up and went inside the house. After about an hour, Jane came back to the garden, but she couldn't find John. Wondering where he may have gone, she came back inside. Few hours went by, but there was no sign of John.

Now, had this been their house back in England, Jane wouldn't have been worried. But in their few weeks time in Iceland, John had never once disappeared like this until now. In fact, other than sleeping and her intimate moments with men, Jane had barely spent any time away from John.

As the day went along, Jane found herself being extremely worried, but also calm since she knew that if there was any trouble, John was more than capable of taking care of himself.

It was now 14 hours since Jane last saw John. The weather outside was gorgeous, even at this time of the day. And it was then that Jane saw John walking in through the gate. She half-ran towards him but slowed down as she looked at his face. There was something off about him. She wondered if he was still angry, but brushed away the thought immediately.

"John! Where were you?" asked Jane. But John ignored her and walked past her into the house.

"John! JOHN! What's going on?" asked Jane following him into the house.

"Nothing," he replied coldly.

"You can't be still angry," she said. But he seemed to ignore her again and walked away to his room. Jane followed and stopped him from closing his door just in time. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked, louder than before.

"What the hell is wrong with me? There's nothing wrong with me," he replied. There was no life in his reply, it just sounded cold and disinterested.

"Why are you behaving like this?" asked Jane.

"Behaving like what?" he asked in reply.

"Okay, where were you?"

"Why are you asking me so many questions? I don't need to tell you everything I do," he retorted angrily.

"Why are you being so snarky and irritable?"

Tempers were about to flare in the house and all it needed was a spark.

"Maybe, because I'm being bombarded with questions," replied John.

"You don't get to disappear like that, especially not in another fuc… not in another country! You've no idea what all was going through my mind all day," she said.

"I thought I would go have some fun in the city alone, well you were going to meet your boyfriend anyway, so I thought, why not!" replied John, irritated.

"My boyfriend?"

And then came the spark.

"Well, whatever he's to you, it's sort of difficult to remember, considering the number of men you..." replied John but stopped midway as he knew he had crossed a line.

"Why? Go on, finish what you were going to say! The number of men I sleep with, that's what you were going to say, right?" asked Jane.

"I didn't say that," he replied.

"But you sure as hell thought it," retorted Jane. "How dare you say something like that to me?"

"I didn't say that," he replied again.

"John! I don't know why you're being so rude right now, and I have certainly no idea what's wrong with you, but say something like that again and I'll obliterate you," she remarked angrily. The volume in the house had gone by a notch.

"Maybe I'm being rude right now because my sister's focus has changed from our mission to… other things," he replied.

"And here we are finally! So, it is about what happened last night"

"It's not about last night! It's about the last few weeks. We took a vacation because we both deserved it, but it seems to me that you've lost sight of our mission," replied John.

"And how is that? What do you expect us to do? We both know that Ginny's going to die. We both want that not to happen. But, we have no idea how it is going to happen."

"We have to do something, we can't just sit around doing nothing," he replied. There was silence in the house for a few moments. The mood in the house had changed. From the tempers that were flaring, it was now one of concern, worry and helplessness.

"John, listen to me, I'm sorry for… I'm sorry for creating this perception that I don't care. But the truth is, I do care. And yet I don't actually know what we can do. Ginny must right now be at The Burrow. She's safe and most likely happy and excited to go to Hogwarts. She'll be safe at Hogwarts too, but, for some reason, she'll be in danger. Now, what we can do is stay vigilant and careful," she replied and put an arm around John who immediately rested his head on it.

"I'm sorry for lashing out, I hate this… with every single fibre of my being. If we can't even protect Ginny, how on earth are we going to protect Harry?" he asked looking at Jane.

"I know you're desperate to succeed, John. I may not look it, but so am I. All we can do is our best, rest is not in our hands," she replied.

"Why didn't you go out with Rúnarsson?" he asked suddenly.

"Well, for one, I'm not sure I want to continue our thing, and secondly, how could I when I was worried about you," she replied.

"I'm sorry!"

"It's fine, now I have an excuse," she replied. They sat there, holding hands lost in their own thoughts for at least 10 minutes before John spoke.

"Are you hungry? I'm famished," he said.

"I haven't had anything since morning," she replied. So, John went to the kitchen to make some food for them, while Jane helped him. They cooked and then they ate.

As they were lying on the bed in John's room, "John! Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you had never met her all those years ago?" she asked. John knew exactly who she was talking about.

"It's been 7 years, sister," he replied.

"We wouldn't be here, for starters," she replied.

"I don't know, but our lives would be definitely different," he added. After a few minutes of lying around and staring at the ceiling, he said, "Why did you think of her suddenly?"

"No reason"

"Life before her was wonderful, wasn't it? I mean, life with her was also wonderful, but before her, it was so calm and fun!" sighed John.

"It can be wonderful after her too," she said. "You have to move on at some point in time, John!"

"What if I don't want to move on?"

"Is that why you haven't been with anyone since her?" she asked. John didn't answer the question, but she already knew that'd happen. They lay on the bed for a few more minutes before Jane spoke.

"Would you mind if I stayed here for the night? I don't want to sleep alone," she said.

"Yeah, I mean no, of course not! Sure, you can sleep here if you want," he replied. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I was just thinking how we are going to defeat Voldemort!" she replied.

"He'll die and he'll pay for what he has done to all of us," he replied.

Harry was blown away by The Burrow. Even though he had been to Hogwarts, Gringotts and Diagon Alley and had been around wizards for a whole year, The Burrow felt completely different and astounding. He was already friends with Fred and George and knew them well since he was in the quidditch team. But, he also found Ron's mother Molly Weasley really kind. Arthur, Ron's father, was working for the ministry and found Harry extremely interesting. Though to be fair it wasn't just Harry he found interesting, Arthur found muggles and the way they lived really interesting.

Harry soon told Ron and the Weasley twins about Dobby. But they seemed nonchalant about the whole thing. Harry had also noticed how clumsy Ginny was whenever Harry was around her. A few days later, they got a letter from Hermione telling them that she'd be joining them to Diagon Alley the week after.

"That's settled then," said Ron.

"Yeah, we'll go to Diagon Alley to get all supplies next week," said Harry.

"Do you know if John's coming?" asked Ron.

"John? I don't know, he's vacationing somewhere," replied Harry.

"Oh!" exclaimed Ron. "I thought I'd invite him here, but I didn't know where he lives. He has never really told us anything about his home, has he?"

"Well, even if you had invited him, he wouldn't have been able to come. And as for his home… Eh.. he lives with his Aunt, doesn't he? Must have never come up in a conversation," replied Harry.

As decided, the following week, the Weasleys along with Harry went to Diagon Alley to get all the supplies for the coming year. Harry of course got sidetracked due to an unfortunate floo powder accident, where he said "Diagonally" instead of "Diagon Alley". Harry ended up in a dimly lit wizard's shop, where he overheard Lucius Malfoy and Draco talking to the owner of the shop. Once he managed to get out of the shop, he was fortunate enough to meet Hagrid, and then a few moments later Ron, Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys.

"Harry! Where were you?" asked Ron.

"Knockturn Alley," replied Hagrid.

"Wow"

"We've never been allowed there," said Fred as the Weasley twins joined Ron and Hermione.

"Harry! How are you?" asked Hermione as she gave him a polite hug.

"Hi Hermione!" said Harry returning the hug.

Ciao! Will be back with Chapter 20 soon...