Chapter 41: All Is Well...For Now

I went into the hospital wing, where I seen that Colin and Justin had already been revived.

Madam Pomfrey took one look at Lockhart and laughed. "Nasty hex he's been hit with?"

"That he hit himself with, Madam." I said.

Pomfrey shook her head. "I'll look to him. There's someone that I know you want to see." she said, giving me a wink for some odd reason.

I peeked around the curtain that Hermione was behind, and got attacked by an overload of hair.

I didn't have time to react outside of a smile. My arms were pinned down to my side by Hermione's bear hug. It took her a second to realize she was hugging me, but when she did, she quickly let go, looked awkwardly at me as I did her, and stuck out her hand.

I smiled wider, taking it. "Welcome back, Hermione." I said.

"Feels good to be back." she said, smiling from ear to ear. "What happened? I overheard your parents saying you two found Ginny in the Chamber."

"Yeah, that was wild!" I said. I then went into the story of everything she had missed during the time she was Petrified. I was basically repeating myself because I had told her most of it before, but I didn't mind. I wasn't planning on telling her that I had snuck down almost every night to talk to her. She would have hounded me about breaking curfew and sneaking about.

When I was done, she and I joined the others that were heading down to the feast.

Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. Harry finally came in. Hermione ran over to him screaming "You solved it! You solved it!" Justin hurried over from the Hufflepuff table to shake. his hand and apologize endlessly for suspecting him, and best of all, Hagrid turned up at half past three, hugging us tightly and crying like a baby.

The night got even better when Professor McGonagall stood up and told us all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat ("Oh, no!" said Hermione), and Dumbledore announced that Lockhart would not be returning to teach.

"Shame." I said, sarcastically. "He has starting to grow on me."

The rest of the final term passed by quickly. Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled, and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Malfoy was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. Ginny was starting to look much happier than she had the entire year.

Soon, it was time to board the Hogwarts Express and head home. We made the most of the last few hours playing Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks, and practicing disarming each other by magic. Harry was getting very good at it.

Harry told us how Dobby was the Malfoy's house elf and how he had freed him from Lucius. I laughed at the fact that the gits had lost someone they treated so horribly. Now Dobby was free to live the life he wanted.

Ginny joined us after saying bye to her friend Colin. She looked so much better than she had, and I was happy to have her back to her cheery and annoying self.

"Ginny? What did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?" asked Harry, when we were almost to King's Cross.

"Oh, that." said Ginny, giggling. "Well, Percy's got a girlfriend."

Fred dropped a stack of books on George's head.

"What?"

"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater." said Ginny. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was - you know - attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early.

"Definitely not." said George, sniggering.

The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped.

Harry pulled out his quill and a bit of parchment and turned to Hermione and I.

"This is called a telephone number," he told me, scribbling it twice, tearing the parchment in two, and handing it to both of us. "I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer, he'll know. Call me at the Dursleys', okay? I can't stand another two months with only Dudley to talk to."

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they? When they hear what you did this year?" said Hermione as we got off the train and joined the crowd heading toward the enchanted barrier.

"Proud?" said Harry. "Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious."

We made it through the barrier. Waiting for him was his fat ass cousin, his even fatter ass uncle, and that stick figure of an aunt of his.

He shook my hand and gave Hermione a quick hug. He then waved and walked off with the family that looked as if they didn't want to take him at all.

"You'll write to me, won't you?" asked Hermione.

"I guess." I joked. "See if you can come this summer, okay?"

Hermione took the paper that Harry had given me, pulled out a will, and wrote her number down. "You can call me if you feel like you're too tired to write." she said smugly.

"At least you Muggles get communication right." I said, taking the paper, fanning it, and then sticking it in my pocket.

"My parents are there." said Hermione, hesitantly. She gave me a curious look. Then, she gave me a hug.

I felt kind of weird, her hugging me. I didn't quite know what to do. So I patted her back and smiled weirdly.

"Thanks, Ron. See you later." she said, and then she walked off, leaving me wondering why she had hugged and thanked me in the first place.