Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, unfortunately, as many things of HBP would have been different if I did…
A/N: Thanks for the reviews! They means a lot to me, so please, if you read, leave a comment, just let me know what you think of my story! Once again, there's something no one of us likes here, but unluckily it was needed…
Chapter Two
"Leaving"
Few more days passed at the Burrow, between two-on-two Quidditch matches, chats, pranks when the twins were there, and so on and it was by now Harry's birthday, and coming of age. That same afternoon he and Ron were to take the test for their Apparition license.
Harry woke up with a wonderful scent filling his nostrils, and found Ginny in his and Ron's room, a tray in her lap.
"Happy birthday, Harry!" she said cheerfully seeing he was awake, and putting the tray in front of him.
"Ginny, really, you shouldn't have" he said, looking at her in awe.
"Well, it's not everyday one wizard turns seventeen, is it? So I thought I could spoil you a bit. However, you might want to hurry eating it, as for once they are letting us go to Diagon Alley, since it's there you and Ron have to be for the test" she said blushing at his praise and sitting on the bed.
Harry was tremendously tempted to snog her right there, but that would not make him seem strong in his want to break up for her safety. And he needed her to believe he was totally sure about it, even if he wasn't at the moment.
Not at all.
So he concentrated on his breakfast instead, picking up some sausages, drinking his pumpkin juice, taking some pancakes and now and then chatting with her. Soon Ron and Hermione joined them too, sitting on Ron's bed.
The four of them chatted a lot, till Harry was ready to go. Mrs. Weasley, Hagrid and Lupin would be their chaperones for the day.
Once there, they kept window-shopping, and it was a really hard task to bring the boys away from the Quidditch shop.
Harry and Ron entered to check for new arrives, and remained lots of time in there.
"Hey, Harry, look at these gloves. Guess they should be pretty useful for a Keeper, not letting the Quaffle slip from his hands…"
"Ron, the gloves can be perfect, but if the player lacks of technique, they can't be useful at all" Harry teased him, grinning.
"Are you implying I lack of technique?" Ron said, only half joking, already starting to become red.
"No need to get upset. What I meant is that you don't need them, you're a pretty good Keeper on your own when you want to be" Harry said nonchalantly, looking at some special glasses for when the weather was particularly cold or rainy.
"This could be useful" he thought, but the price of 20 Galleons discouraged him. Not that he didn't have that much, but he didn't want to pay that sum for the article.
Hermione and Ginny finally got tired of waiting them.
"Hey, you two, come out of there or we're gonna go alone"
"Go on then" Ron replied.
"Ronald Billius Weasley, if you don't exit that shop right now, my Bat Bogey Hex will have you as a receiver" Ginny bellowed glaring at her brother.
That menace was enough to make the boys exit the shop at full speed.
Ginny and Hermione giggled behind their back, while walking to other places.
A visit to the twins' was an obliged stop, and so they could see that the love potions had almost been all sold.
"Wonder who got so much of them, in times like these ones…" Hermione asked.
"Well, desperation brings you to do all kind of things" Harry said darkly, thinking of Merope, Voldemort's mother.
The others didn't understand his reference, though, as they did not know of her story.
"What are you talking about, Harry?" Fred asked.
"Long story Dumbledore told me last year" Harry replied sadly. "But I would prefer not talking about it right now"
And so the matter was abandoned.
Hermione made a mental note to ask about it one day, tough.
Then, they had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, where they were the only customers in weeks, as no one stopped by anymore, just tried to do their business in the open as quickly as possible. Tom was extremely kind with them for this reason.
They took advantage of the journey to buy Ginny what she would need for her sixth year at Hogwarts, as the board of the governors had in the end decided to leave the school open. Ron and Hermione, however, did not buy what they needed for their last year.
"Why don't you guys buy what you need?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"Because we need nothing" Hermione said, facing him. She knew the moment would have come, and she was ready. He had never resisted her anything when she really wanted it. "We're coming with you, wherever you go. We have already said that at Dumbledore's burial"
"No way. You go to Hogwarts and stay as safe as possible. I'll try to stay in touch if I can, but I'm not allowing you to come with me!"
"You're not our parents, Harry, so you can't order us go to school if we don't want to. Our families have already accepted our decision, you should do the same" Ron said, backing up his girlfriend, for once.
The discussion continued for a while, till it was time for the boys to go and have their test. No one backed away from his/her position, so they would need to discuss it further later.
Both of the boys passed it brilliantly, they were asked to Apparate from one end to the other of Diagon Alley, and they managed to do it perfectly, non splinching themselves or missing the target that was in front of Madam Malkin's.
The examiner complimented them both, but especially Harry has he had recognized him.
"The "Chosen One", what an honour for me to test you. You seem really good at Apparating, of course being powerful as you are, how couldn't you?"
Harry thanked him, took his license and moved away as quickly as he could, trying to avoid other people recognizing him. He would never get along with that "being famous" thing…
Since they were in front of the shop, Hermione and Ginny brought them in, and the time the two girls had waited while at "Quidditch Quality Accessories" was equalled by the time the boys waited for them trying all kind of robes.
At some point Ginny called for Harry to ask for his judgement, and seeing the sexy dark red robes she was wearing, he had really to restrain himself from snogging her right there.
"I think you look gorgeous in those" he managed to say instead, gulping.
Ginny thanked him, smiling to herself, and changed back to her robes. Hermione smiled a bit sadly at her friends' antics.
On the way home, Harry still tried to convince them to go to Hogwarts.
"Really, guys, I'm better off on my own. There are dangerous things to face, I don't even know where we should look…for now my only certainty is that Regulus Black has taken one of those and put it somewhere, but I still need to find where"
"Well, in the note it said he wanted to destroy it" Ron commented
"I know, but how do we know he wasn't murdered first? That would have brought the Horcrux again in Voldemort's hands, and who knows what the madman would have done with it" Harry replied. "Really, I can't afford to worry for your lives too. I already got a lot on my mind" he said, but Hermione could be even more stubborn than himself.
"Harry, we've been in dangerous adventures with you more than once, and we were in the DA. We can look out for ourselves" she said, patiently, like talking to a little kid.
Harry let it drop for now, seeing there was no way he could win the argument.
Once at home, they had dinner as usual, then played some games of chess and Exploding Snap. Harry however was more into a plan of his own, since he couldn't wait anymore to leave and start the researches.
Plus, that would stop the discussion with Ron and Hermione once and for all.
So when everyone was in bed, he slipped out of his own, put his Invisibility Cloak on, and checking that Ron was still asleep, he snuck down the stairs to the front door. He left a note on the table so they wouldn't worry about him being kidnapped, then exited in the porch just to stumble over Hermione's sleeping form.
Of course she bolt awake, wand in hand, and before Harry could walk past her, she guessed where he was and grabbed his ankle.
"Just where you think you're going, Harry?" she said angrily, now standing up and grabbing him from the shoulders.
Of course he, being a male, could have shaken her off himself and gone away all the same, but not without knocking her to the ground and maybe giving her a nasty bruise.
So he sighed and stopped struggling, taking the cloak off of him.
"I was leaving" he said, wearily, sitting on the porch floor.
"Yeah, that much I can see" she said still sternly, glaring at him. "But I know you too well for not imagining you would try something like that" she added then, softening her expression and giving him a broad smile.
He ran his hand in his hair, nervously. "Hermione, listen, I know you and Ron can stand for yourself, but this is my fight. It's me who has to do this, and I can't if I'm worrying for you. For both of you, I mean. It would be like a burden for me"
His words stung her hard. He could have not hurt her more with something he said.
"I see. Then, if you really want to, go" she said, looking away, her eyes red, her voice quivering a bit., and one single tear rolling down her cheek against her will. She wiped it away angrily.
"Good luck, Harry" she added then, giving him a feeble smile.
He walked toward her, looking directly in her eyes, cupping her face with his hands.
"Hermione, look at me" he said, as she had started looking down to her shoes.
She did.
"I hate to see you hurt or crying, you know that, don't you?" he said, still holding her face.
She nodded.
"I'm sorry for what I've just said. It didn't come out like it should have. Guess I've stuck my foot in my mouth in perfect Ron Weasley style, eh?" he said, attempting a joke.
She chuckled, wiping away another tear, then looked at him.
"If this means that much to you, I'll go with you and Ron, not alone" he said, sighing. He knew he would worry himself sick at times, but he could deny her nothing when she had those lost puppy eyes. In those moments he could really drown in the cinnamon of her orbs.
She smiled broadly now, hugging him and staining his shirt with her tears.
"Oh, Harry" she murmured.
"I couldn't have lived not knowing what you were off to, how you were doing" she added after some moments.
"I know. It would have been the same for me. But now, we better go and get some sleep, or we'll be knackered tomorrow" he said, leading her back inside.
Next morning, they woke up early, and got breakfast with the rest of the family. Ginny kept glancing at Harry, who looked back and a couple of times blew kisses at her, making her giggle and blush.
Ron and Hermione were side by side, and chatting lovely with Mr. Weasley. The twins were already off for work, while Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen.
They all ate their eggs, bacon, pumpkin juice and pumpkin pie, then the trio got back to their rooms to check their baggage.
"Bring just what you need the most. We travel fast and light" Harry had advised them, so they all filled one small bag each, in which they had some money, both Muggle and Wizarding, as they had changed some at Gringott's the day before, some fresh clothes, some food just to have reserves, obviously their wands in their pockets, and few other things. Hermione brought maps of England, both Muggle and Wizarding, Ron his amulet, a shirt of the Cannons, Harry brought his faithful Firebolt, shrunken to enter the bag.
Finally the moment of leaving came. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood on the threshold of the Burrow, ready to set off once more for an adventure that they did not know where would bring them.
They were not afraid, though. The fate of the whole Wizarding World rested on their shoulders but they were not nervous. Not more than before their other adventures, at least.
Molly hugged each one of them with one of her trademark crushing hugs, while Mr. Weasley simply shook their hands, wishing them good luck. As for Ginny, she hugged her brother and Hermione, her best friend, while kissed Harry hard on the mouth, not caring of what her parents would say.
It turned out they said nothing. Not in front of the others, at least.
Harry eagerly kissed her back, but then a cough interrupted them.
"You may want to stop it, Harry, or we'll never leave" Ron teased him.
Harry realised what he had been doing, and suddenly moved away from her, his head low.
He felt guilty. He had to be strong and yet he let her lure him into one kiss that left little doubt about his feelings.
Well, not that Ginny doubted them, but anyhow…so he nodded once more, then turned and started walking away. Hermione and Ron followed him.
"Please, be careful, all of you!" Molly called once more, before the three of them Apparated to Diagon Alley, their first stop.
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