Title: Adrift
Summary: It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, but a tragic accident plunges Harry and Hermione adrift in to a new, uncertain life.
Rating: PG-13 for language and adult themes
Authors Notes: Well, I'm back!
I do apologise for the shortness of that last chapter. Initially, this chapter and the last were one big chapter, but I felt it was too long and that it needed to be separated and the line of 'How do we tell the kids' just seemed like a natural ending for it.
But this chapter is a bit longer, so I hope you enjoy! Remember all reviews are welcome, please don't hesitate to nicely tell me what I'm doing that could be better etc!!!
In the last reviews, I can't remember who it was I'm sorry, mentioned that I've been mixing up my tense on words and using the wrong words (bought instead of brought)… all I can say to that is that most of this was written within emails whilst I was at work, so I was rushing and second, I'm not that good with grammar and stuff- it's what happens when you spend four years getting kicked out of English every lesson and you miss a full year of school in primary school and wind up missing out on the fundamentals such as grammar and multiplication tables (I was the only one in my 2nd grade class who couldn't recite them!).
So if there is anymore bad grammar or English, please excuse me! As long as you can get the gist of what's being said!
SIX
They arrived back at the villa at sunrise. Harry could not believe that it had been exactly twenty four hours earlier that they had all woken up, and gone their separate ways. How fragile life was, he thought walking up the stairs. How quickly things could change.
Walking into the villa, Hermione went into the lounge room and collapsed onto the lounge in a fresh flood of tears. Harry went outside, where Hermione's book still lay beside the pool, where she had dropped it the day before as they had run.
'Will you both be alright?' Jack asked Harry.
Harry turned to Jack and shook his head. It was hard to believe that this man had been a complete stranger at this time the previous day. And yet here he was, still with them after the most difficult night of their lives. They'd still had no word on Jack's daughter and Harry could not believe that he had not fallen to pieces over the lack of news, nor that he was still with them after all these hours.
'Will we ever be alright again?' Harry asked wryly. 'Thank you, Jack.'
'Don't mention it,' Jack said, clapping Harry on the shoulder. 'Will you be staying here much longer?'
'No, we need to get home, to the kids.'
'Please, come see me before you leave,' Jack said, shaking Harry's hand and slowly walking away. Harry watched him go and saw him pause at the top of the stairs as his mobile phone rang in his pocket. He then vanished from sight.
Harry remained in the early sunlight for a moment, before turning around and heading back inside. Hermione was quiet, and he had a feeling she had cried herself to sleep. He kept walking and ended up in the kitchen.
It was only when he was in the kitchen that he realised that he had not eaten in over twenty four hours. He had no desire at all for food, but did get two glasses from the cupboard and poured out two glasses of water. He drank one of them in almost one and then headed back into the lounge room, leaving the second one on the coffee table for Hermione when she woke up.
It was strange, how completely numb he felt. It was almost like he was living in a dream. But every time he blinked, he could see Ginny on that stretcher and he knew that it was real and that it had happened.
Ginny wasn't coming home again.
He headed upstairs slowly and stood outside the bedroom door, staring at it for a long time before finally opening it. The smell of Ginny's perfume hit him at once and he swallowed a large lump in his throat as he saw her clothes in a small pile on the floor beside the bed. He hadn't even seen her yesterday morning. She had left him asleep.
If only he could've told her how much he loved her, and kissed her one last time.
The bathroom door was open and he headed for it, closing it behind him and leaning against it, slid to the floor.
It was here that he finally cried.
~*~
Hermione was awake, and heard Harry go upstairs, then heard a door close. She sat up, drank the glass of water in front of her, and then used her wand to summon the cordless telephone to her.
She dialled the number from memory and waited, her breathing growing faster and faster as she listened to the line ring.
'Hello?'
'Mum?' she said and heard an audible gasp.
'Oh, Hermione love!' her mother exclaimed. 'We've been watching the news, you're not anywhere near that explosion are you? Your father and I almost had heart attacks when we heard!'
'I felt it,' she said softly and her mother gasped again.
'Oh, Hermione.'
'Mum,' she paused, wishing that the words she was about to say were not true, praying that she could wake up and it was all a nightmare. 'Ron and Ginny were there.'
There was silence on the line. Tears were slowly sliding down Hermione's cheeks and she was biting her lip to stop herself from screaming in pain.
'I'm sorry honey,' her mother finally said. 'When are you coming home?'
'I'm not sure,' Hermione answered, her voice shaking. 'But I need you to do something for me.'
'Anything.'
'Could you contact Molly? And give her a message? Get her to call us from the post office. I… I want to tell her myself.'
'Of course.'
'Thank you, mum.'
As she hung up the phone, the composure slipped and she lay back down and sobbed into the pillow.
~*~
A police officer came to the villa mid-morning with paperwork for both Harry and Hermione to complete. Hermione cried through the entire meeting, and Harry felt like he was a robot, just going through the motions. Once the police officer had left, Hermione ventured upstairs to her bedroom and Harry could hear her crying.
All he felt like doing was raging- he wanted to smash everything in sight and destroy the villa. Anger that he had not felt since the night that Sirius died had started coursing through his veins and he just wanted to explode.
Instead he went for a run. He ran as fast and as hard as he could, his mind whirling as he did so. Memories of Ginny flashed across like a film and after an hour of hard running, he finally stopped and almost collapsed.
It just wasn't fair; he thought as he braced himself up against a fence and tried to regulate his breathing. How could they have all come through a war fine, and then have life end this way? And the children- Harry's thoughts had been consumed by them. How was he going to tell them that their mother would not be coming home?
'You alright?' A voice said from behind and Harry turned around and felt stunned. It was Jack, standing next to a car, looking at Harry worriedly.
'I'm fine,' Harry said. 'What are you doing here?'
'You're outside my house,' Jack said, which made Harry, despite everything that was happening, laugh.
'Wasn't planned,' Harry explained quickly. 'I was just running, and I wound up here.'
The passenger door of the car opened and Jack's attention diverted from Harry to the woman who was climbing out very awkwardly. Harry looked at her and understood the phone call Jack had received as he was leaving the villa earlier. But the woman looked incredibly familiar to Harry.
'Harry, this is my daughter. Grace,' Jack said, holding onto Grace's arm as she leaned back into the car for a set of crutches. 'Gracie, this is Harry Potter, who I was telling you about. I waited with him last night.'
Grace had the crutches and looked up at Harry and smiled at him, then her father.
'Or perhaps he was waiting with you,' Grace said hoarsely and then it hit Harry where he knew her from. 'Dad, Harry was the one who found me and helped pulled me from the wreckage. He's the one I was telling you about.'
Jack looked from Grace to Harry and then laughed.
'Well I'll be damned, it's a small world,' he said, closing the car door behind Grace. 'How uncanny that we spent the night together, and I was waiting for the news on Grace, when all along you had saved her life.'
'Unfortunately, I didn't have time to give him my name,' Grace told her father. 'Otherwise you wouldn't have had such a stressful night.'
'I'm glad you're alright,' Harry said to Grace and she looked at him sadly.
'I wouldn't exactly call it 'alright',' she said with a laugh. 'Must look better than I feel.'
She paused and looked at Harry sadly.
'Dad said that you lost your wife,' Grace said. 'I'm sorry.'
Harry couldn't say anything. He bit his lip to force the lump back down his throat.
'Would you like to come in?' Jack asked and Harry nodded.
Jack went ahead to unlock the house and Harry followed Grace up the garden path. Jack and Grace's villa was very similar to the one that Harry was staying in, only it was slightly smaller and only had views on one side. Harry followed Grace into the kitchen, where she sat at the breakfast bar as Jack searched through the fridge.
'Would you like some lunch, Harry?' he asked, turning around. 'We don't have much, but I could make some sandwiches.'
Before Harry could speak his stomach rumbled loudly and Jack laughed.
'I think that's a yes, Dad,' Grace said, and then looked at Harry. 'Sit down, Harry.'
Harry sat down next to Grace and they watched Jack slice the bread and make a pile of sandwiches. He placed them all on a large plate and placed smaller ones in front of Harry and Grace. He also placed a plastic container full of sandwiches in front of Harry, who looked at it curiously.
'For Hermione,' Jack explained, pointing at the container. 'I imagine she hasn't eaten either.'
'Thank you.'
~*~
When Harry left Jack's, not only did he have a container full of sandwiches, but he had a large bottle of whisky and half of a stew, which Grace had helped Jack prepare, hobbling around the kitchen on her crutches. He felt guilty for leaving Hermione alone for so long, but he was very grateful for the distraction, and the food, which he knew they both needed.
The villa was dark when he arrived and he turned the hallway light on as he entered the silence. He was panicked for a moment, and then he saw Hermione and Ron's suitcases sitting beside the door.
'Hermione?' he called, walking along slowly, his shoes making no sound on the tiled floor.
'I'm in here,' she said so softly that he almost didn't hear her.
She was sitting in the dark in the lounge room, staring out the window at the sunset. She had her legs pulled up to her chest as she sat, hugging them close, and he knew she hadn't long stopped crying. Harry approached her slowly, holding the food parcels from Jack so she could see them.
'I've been with Jack,' he told her, placing the parcels and whisky on the coffee table. 'He sent some food.'
'I'm not hungry.'
'You need to eat,' he said firmly, taking a seat beside her and taking hold of her hand. 'You can't waste away, not now.'
'Why didn't I go with him?' she asked Harry, turning to face him.
'Because if you had gone as well, what would I tell your kids?' Harry asked. Her eyes filled with tears and he squeezed her hand.
'I rang my mother,' she said softly, leaning over and laying her head on his shoulder. 'She owled Molly. I just spoke to her on the phone. She's devastated. Mum also re-scheduled our flights.'
'I'm assuming that's why your suitcases are in the hallway?'
'Yes,' she said, wiping her eyes with her free hand. 'And I didn't want to look at his things. Not now.'
Harry squeezed her hand again, wondering how much she had cried whilst packing the suitcases and knowing that he would do the same when he packed his own bags.
'When do we fly out?' he asked her finally.
'Tomorrow morning. I didn't see any point delaying. And we need to get to Hogwarts, before the kids find out from someone else.'
Harry reached into his pocket and withdrew his wand. He conjured two glasses and summoned the bottle of whisky from the table. Still using his wand, he poured a small measure of liquid into each glass and then let go of Hermione's hand and passed her a glass.
'Let's have a toast,' he said slowly and she sat upright and stared at him. 'To Ron and Ginny.'
'To Ron and Ginny.'