A/N: I'm sorry for the long delay in my usual week-or-something updates. Life got really complicated for a bi and then the internet on my computer broke, but it's starting to go back to normal and the internet is all fixed!
I hope you like this next chapter, despite even more complications between Harry and Hermione. That can happen when you have to deal with horcruxes and such, so give 'em a break =P.
The reviews from the last part were some of the best I have received. Thank you so much and please leave a review for this part, too, if you've got something to say.
*
Harry and Hermione quickly hurried to the room Ron called from. Remus' head was in the fireplace and he looked up at the three of them gravely.
"I think you three better come here quick," he said to them, speaking fast so their communication did not last too long.
"What is it?" Harry asked in alarm.
Remus' expression darkened. "It's Mundungus Fletcher. We... we found him dead in an alleyway last night and... I think there's something that you need to see."
*
Ron swung the locket in front of his face like a pendulum, his eyes following it as it flew back and forth and back and forth. He finally dropped it onto the table and sighed.
"What good is it when we have, what, three horcruxes but we don't even know how to destroy them?" he asked out loud.
Hermione bristled. "I'm doing all I can, Ron! As I'm sure you know, the information regarding horcruxes is a tiny bit scarce. Not even McGonagall or Lupin know anything about them," she hissed at him vehemently.
Ron raised his arms in either surrender or protection. "I wasn't blaming anyone, Hermione. I was just saying..."
Harry stared darkly out of Grimmauld Place's kitchen window, deep in thought. He couldn't help but acknowledge that Ron was right. They had the horcruxes, but what were they going to do with them?
"I say we just throw them against a wall or slam it down with a Bludger or something and see what happens."
"Ron, are you crazy?! Did you see Dumbledore's hand last year? It was completely mangled! It was black! And all from destroying a horcrux!"
"But how do you know how Dumbledore destroyed the horcrux, huh? He didn't say that he tried it physically. What if he used magic? Maybe horcruxes have some shield around them preventing magic from being used to destroy them, or if it is used, it has serious repercussions like a mangled, black hand!"
Hermione gaped, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly.
Ron had a point.
Harry turned away from the window to face Ron and Hermione at the table.
"It's still too dangerous to try, though," Hermione finally said. "We need to research further into the subject."
"But Hermione!" Ron said exasperatedly. "How long have you, and us too might I add, been researching the subject? It's been months! And it's gotten us nowhere in finding out how to destroy the bloody bastards." Ron eyed the locket crucially before grabbing the sugar container and smashing it over the locket.
"RON!" Hermione cried.
"Calm down, Hermione. It didn't even scratch the damn thing. I was just getting frustrated." He set the sugar container aside, starting to clean up the sugar that had spilled on the table.
Harry approached the table, staring at the locket cautiously as it was going to explode any minute.
Reading his mind, Hermione looked at him in disbelief. "Harry, you've got to be joking."
"I destroyed Riddle's diary by plunging a Basilisk fang through it," he said to no one in particular. He looked up at Ron and Hermione, his eyes shining as his mind started piecing parts of a complicated puzzle together. "Dumbledore was the one who destroyed the ring, and he probably used magic." He grabbed a hold of the locket. "But I was the one who destroyed the diary and I didn't use magic." He approached the kitchen counter and opened up a rickety, old drawer.
"Harry..." Hermione began slowly, fearing the worst.
"So that means..." He pulled out a hammer from the drawer, ironically a tool Hermione insisted on keeping inside the house for practical uses, and swung hard at the locket perched atop the counter.
"HARRY!" Hermione shrieked before a blinding light filled the kitchen.
*
Harry blinked his eyes open, somehow finding himself on the other side of the kitchen, crumpled painfully against a wall. He stood up, hearing a few limbs and joints crack a bit painfully, but otherwise... he was perfectly fine.
"Ron? Hermione?" he called out to the eerily quiet kitchen.
"Wow." Harry quickly turned his head to see Ron peering out from under the table. "Wow," he repeated.
There was a groan and both boys hurried over to Hermione who had also been thrown off her feet and was now sprawled in the corner of the kitchen. She groaned again. "It hurts to move," she said. "I think a chair flew at me," Groaning again, she slowly tried to sit up. Harry and Ron were quick to help her.
"You're bleeding," Harry remarked, wiping a spot of blood slightly above Hermione's eyebrow. His touch made both of them stop for a split second and they stared into each other's eyes for the first time in what felt like forever. Ron had turned away from them and was staring at the locket, still lying on the counter innocently. The only difference was that it was open.
"I think you did it, mate," he said softly.
Harry ripped his eyes away from Hermione's. "Huh?" he said pathetically, his mind swirling over everything too much too fast.
"I think you destroyed it." Ron slowly stepped towards the locket and touched the locket, once, twice, as if he expected it to burn him. He picked it up and started swinging it back and forth again. He burst out laughing. "You fucking did it!"
Ron ran over and hugged both Harry and Hermione, squeezing them painfully together. But they didn't care. They were all laughing. Hermione found that she was crying. Harry was speechless. His eyes were still fixed on the spot on the counter where the locket was. A large scrape in the wood signaled the impact his hammer had made and the chairs and table were askew around the kitchen, but remarkably, that was all.
"Harry Potter and the Horcrux-Destroying Hammer!" Ron exclaimed.
"Who knew it would have been that easy?" Hermione whispered in wonder.
Harry agreed.
Why was it so easy?
*
Dear Harry,
I miss you already.
This is very hard for me to write because I'm not exactly sure where "we" stand at this point. I know that you ended things between us, but with everything that's happened, I just don't know. It seems like only yesterday we were walking by the lake at Hogwarts or flirting with each other at Bill and Fleur's wedding.
I better end this now. I hope to see you soon.
Love,
Ginny
*
"What did she say?"
Harry jumped in his seat, jolting out of his silent reading of Ginny's letter for the second time.
"Ginny," Hermione said, sitting across from him with a cup of tea in her hands. "What did she say?"
"Nothing," Harry lied, avoiding eye contact with Hermione.
Hermione stared at him for a moment before sighing and picking up a copy of the day's Daily Prophet. "There's been another attack. A family in Bedford."
Harry hated this routine they shared. The routine of normality where "good mornings" and "good nights" were shared, where Hermione went to the library to research and where Harry occupied his time with Ron discussing strategies and more research, where the three of them poured everything they got into their training that they were too tired to talk the rest of the day. The routine where she no longer came to his room seeking warmth or comfort, and he no longer sought it from her either, chickening out every time he wanted to.
Ron shuffled into the kitchen, his hair sticking up on end from last night's sleep and a piece of parchment clutched in his hand. "Mum is inviting us over this weekend," he said, scratching the back of his head absently.
"For what?" Harry asked, trying to ignore the way Hermione was ignoring him behind bold headlines.
Ron looked up from Mrs. Weasley's letter, an odd expression on his face. "For my birthday," he said softly. His gaze snapped back to the letter. "Blimey, I had forgotten all about that..."
"Then we'll go," Harry said, pasting a smile on to his face.
Is this what the war has done to them?
*
Fred and George's flat was buzzing with activity. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had been staying there since their discharge from St. Mungo's since The Burrow wasn't in any state to live in.
"Yet!" Mrs. Weasley had briskly said while she stirred contents with a heavenly smell in a large pot. "All of us grew up in that house so we're going to do everything we can to bring it back."
When Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived, an onslaught of Weasley hugs were received. Mrs. Weasley fussed endlessly over them, ignoring Ron entirely when he pointed out that she was the one who had been in a hospital just last month.
"'Lo, Harry," a shy voice said to him. Harry's eyes met Ginny's but he quickly looked away.
"Hey, Gin," he said.
Hermione observed their exchange, almost missing it entirely within the flurry of Mrs. Weasley's chidings of Ron standing next to her. She watched as Harry looked away from Ginny, shoving his hands into his pockets, a gesture she knew he did when he was nervous and uncomfortable. When he turned away, his eyes came in contact with hers and it was her turn to look away.
"Oh, Hermione! Would you be a dear and help Ginny and I in the kitchen?" Mrs. Weasley asked, while Ron fiddled with his hair consciously after having suffered an attack to it.
Hermione pulled on her best smile. "Sure, Mrs. Weasley."
Harry watched as the girls walked into the kitchen, Ginny looking back at him before the door swung shut.
"Oy, let's go into the living room," Ron said. "Grab a Butterbeer or something."
"Ronald!" Mrs. Weasley's voice boomed from the kitchen. "Go set the table!"
"But it's my birthday!" Ron exclaimed.
"So?" the rest of the Weasleys chorused.
Harry laughed heartily, slapping Ron on the back. "Happy birthday, mate. C'mon, I'll help you."
*
With a delicious dinner resting in their stomachs and slices of chocolate cake covered in cherries topping it all off, the family broke off into happy chatter around the living room. Harry's spirits felt considerably lighter knowing that three horcruxes had been destroyed and that the Weasleys (except for one... Percy had yet again failed to show up) were safe and happy, under the same roof for once. His feelings of contentment were disrupted when he felt a warm hand place itself on his thigh momentarily.
"Meet me in the kitchen," Ginny said out of the corner of her mouth, as she got up and began to gather dishes.
His stomach churning, Harry got up, offering to help.
*
Hermione sighed as she toyed with the crumbs of cake on her plate.
"Are you done?"
She looked up at Harry, waiting expectantly for her plate. Her eyes darted over his shoulder to see Ginny with a pile of plates of her own, waiting for him so they could go into the kitchen together. She pushed the plate towards Harry's outstretched arm.
"Yeah, I'm done." Then she turned away, missing Harry looking back at her before Ginny hustled him into the kitchen with the dishes.
Soon after they disappeared, Ron appeared next to her, handing her a cold bottle of Butterbeer.
"Balcony?" he asked, and she nodded.
When they stepped on to the balcony, Hermione was glad for the sweater she wore as a chilly wind blew from the late, winter night. It was bearable though, and she was thankful for the fresh air compared to the heat coming from the flat full of Weasleys.
"There's something going on between you and Harry," Ron said, opening his Butterbeer, the bottle hissing noisily into the night.
"Hmm," was all Hermione said, not opening her drink just yet.
The two stood in companionable silence as Ron sipped thoughtfully, looking out over a busy, Muggle London street.
"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes must be doing smashing if Fred and George can afford a place like this." He sipped again as Hermione remained silent. "Albeit, it's not a flat that can house all of us at once, but..." He shrugged.
"Ron," Hermione suddenly said. "Why don't you think the two of us didn't work out?"
Ron gulped, focusing intently on the cars zooming by on the street. "Why do you ask?"
Hermione shrugged. "I don't know," she told him truthfully.
"Well first of all," Ron said, "we decided to keep our relationship a secret from everyone."
"There were more important things to worry about," Hermione explained.
"I know, I know." Ron sighed and turned to face her. "Second of all, while the snogs were nice, the fights seemed to get worse."
"And I always thought that you liked the fights." Hermione smirked, receiving a light shove from Ron.
"I did... once in a while. But," he turned to face her seriously. "They started getting a bit..."
Hermione nodded, not needing Ron to finish.
"And third of all?" Ron leaned in a bit closer. "Your thoughts were with someone else."
Hermione's eyes bulged and she stepped back from him. "What? My thoughts were not-" she began.
"You just didn't know it at the time, Hermione," Ron said, interrupting her tirade. "Either did I, honestly. But looking back, it makes sense."
"I don't see how it makes sense," Hermione huffed.
"Oh come on. What was the number one reason we kept our relationship a secret?"
Harry.
"We had other things to worry about!"
"Like...?"
Hermione remained quiet.
"And our fights, they started to be about..."
Harry.
"But that hardly...! I'm sorry, Ron, but the times you wanted to go off snogging we were knee-deep in research about Voldemort!"
"I know, I know, Hermione!" Ron said, trying to soothe her down. "Don't worry about it. But... it's just... Harry was part of everything, whether we did it consciously or not. Sometimes, I think that we wouldn't even have been friends if it weren't for him! Actually, we wouldn't have been friends if it weren't for him." Hermione bit her lip. "He's the one that remembered to go back for you in first year, you know."
"H-he was?" Hermione asked, not knowing this minor detail in the history of their great friendship.
Ron nodded. "Yup. So you see? If it weren't for him, 'we' would have been nothing." He turned to stare out at the city street once more.
Hermione moved closer to him and hooked an arm though his, leaning her head against him. "I don't know, Ron. Maybe first year just wasn't our year, but I think we still could have been friends." He looked at her and she smiled up at him. "I don't regret my time with you. We had fun, really. But we just weren't meant to be like that. At least we're better friends now, though."
Ron smiled back and kissed the top of her head. "That's true." He stared out at the sky pensively and it amazed Hermione how much Ron had grown and how much he reminded her of Harry at that moment. "We've been through too much to throw everything away," he said.
Hermione's heart tugged at his words, her mind fleeting to Harry who was back inside.
With Ginny.
Her heart squirmed again but for different reasons. She joined Ron's gaze out to London sadly. "I wish we worked though," she whispered as she thought of how Harry and Ginny must be getting back together right now. What was stopping him, really? They had destroyed three horcruxes, things were going relatively smoothly and spirits were high.
Ron shook his head. "No. One can't go wandering around life trying to make something out of nothing at all."
"Yes. You're right," Hermione said softly, her voice being carried off by the wind, her thoughts drifting to a kiss that happened between her and Harry almost a month ago.
Just let go, Hermione.
*
"I'm sorry, Ginny."
Ginny sniffed, wiping her eyes with her wrist since her hands were soapy. She turned away from him and continued washing the dishes. She soon gave up, a plate slipping from between her fingers and clattering loudly in the sink. She sighed.
"Well, I tried, didn't I?" she said, a fake smile on her face as if she wanted to laugh the whole thing off as a lighthearted joke between friends.
"I-I'm sorry," Harry repeated, meaning it but knowing that his words were losing all meaning anyway.
Ginny grabbed a hold of his hands, causing them to be soapy as well but that was the last thing on both of their minds. She stood up on tiptoe and brushed her lips against his, but when he didn't respond, she quickly dropped his hands and stepped back, fleeing the kitchen.
Harry stood there, alone and dumbfounded. When he finally gathered up his thoughts, he cast a charm over the dishes to wash themselves and went into the living room to join everyone else.
It was Bill that pointed out where Ron and Hermione were standing out on the balcony when Harry failed to find them.
In a room full of Weasleys, Harry was surprised to find himself feeling very alone.