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: Sorry for the delay- meant to have this up earlier in the week but just didn't get time! I hope you enjoy it! And as always, thank you to everyone who has reviewed and another prod for everyone to please review and tell me what you think (nicely, even if you don't like it).
NINE
The first person Harry encountered on his arrival at the Burrow was Arthur Weasley. Harry found himself being hugged roughly by his father in law, before Molly came into the kitchen and collapsed in tears at the sight of Harry.
The entire Weasley family had closed ranks and the house was filled to breaking point. Bill and Fleur had arrived; Charlie had come over from Romania. George was there, as was Percy and their children. Teddy Lupin was even there, looking slightly uncomfortable, as if he was intruding on something he shouldn't be.
Lily attached herself to Harry when he arrived, but Harry saw no sign of his two sons, nor of Hermione, Hugo and Rose. They were all gathered in the lounge room, everyone seemingly still in a state of shock. After a painful half an hour answering everyone's questions, Harry managed to excuse himself from the group and his daughter and went searching for the others.
He found his sons out the front of the house, sitting in the long grass and staring into the distance. Albus looked as if he had done nothing but cry since he'd arrived, and James was still looking angry and hurt. He left them both there, with the thoughts and memories not dissimilar to what Harry had been having before leaving Spain. He made them promise to come inside soon.
Walking back inside, he headed straight up the stairs. He found his steps were getting slower and slower, until he stopped right outside Ginny's bedroom. Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened the door and stepped over the threshold.
The smell of her perfume, the same floral one that she had worn for so many years, hit him straight away and tears sprung up straight away. Her bedroom was the same as it had been for years now. He always referred to it as her bedroom, but she would scold him.
'It's our bedroom,' she would tell him. She had redecorated the room and bought a new bed, so that they would both be comfortable when they came to stay. And she had plastered the wall with family photos.
It was these photos that caught Harry's attention and he slowly walked around the room, looking at each one of them carefully. Ginny was in every single one. Beside the bed were the photos Harry loved the most. They were the pictures he had taken when all three of the children had been born. Ginny was propped up in bed, nursing the small baby in her arms. In Albus' photo, James was sitting next to his mother, looking at the new baby strangely. And in Lilys' photo, both boys were with the two girls.
There was a photo in front of these photos, one Harry knew hadn't been there the last time they had stayed in this room. He knew this, because he remembered when it had been taken and it was the last family photo.
The day before they had taken the kids to Kings Cross to catch the school train, Ginny had insisted on taking a family photo. She got all the kids to change into their Hogwart's robes and she and Harry had put on nice robes and they had posed in the front hallway. It had become Ginny's favourite photo and it could be seen pretty much everywhere. Harry knew there were at least three copies in their own house, not to mention in the small photo album Ginny had always carried with her. And she had sent a copy here to Molly and Arthur, which took pride of place on their mantle. Harry himself kept a copy on his desk. And now this copy, which Harry knew Ginny must've place there on her last visit before they went away.
'Harry?'
He turned around and saw Hermione framed in the doorway. She smiled at him softly and headed into the room, taking hold of his hand.
'I guess we should think about the funerals.'
~*~
Ron and Ginny were buried exactly a week and one day after they had died. Molly had chosen to bury them in the Ottery St Catchpole cemetery, next to Fred. All of their former classmates from Hogwarts attended and offered comfort to Harry and Hermione. The children's friends and classmates from Hogwarts had been given the day off, and they stood together in sadness. Most of them knew Ron and Ginny, having spent days and sometimes weeks staying with their friends' families.
Harry managed to speak, very briefly, but Hermione had stayed quiet. She stood in the front, wearing a long black veil to hide her tears and she kept a tight hold on Rose's hand throughout the entire service and burial.
After the burial, they all made their way to the local pub. Food was spread on a table in the far corner and everyone laughed as they joked about Ron and his love of buffet style dining. All of the children made their way to the park next door, where the younger ones played on the swings and slides, whilst the older ones sat in corners in little groups and talked.
Harry made his way from person to person, being hugged and cried on. The reminiscences were flowing from each person and each memory, no matter the size, caused his heart to ache. He spotted Hermione, across the room from him doing the exact same and wearing a mask of pain that Harry hoped he was disguising better on his own face. Without being obvious, she smiled at him slightly through her pain, and tilted her head to a door beside the bar. Harry nodded and excused himself from one of his colleagues, who was in the middle of long winded story about working with Ron. He beat Hermione to the room
She entered the room, closed the door behind her and lent against it, sighing. Harry just smiled at her and they met in the middle of the room and hugged each other tightly.
'Do you think they'd notice if we went for a minute?' she asked him as they broke apart.
'Why?'
'I want to go back to the house,' she said slowly, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. 'I haven't been to our house since we came back. And I know the kids would like to go there tonight. I just… I just don't want to go alone.'
'I'll come with you,' Harry said, taking hold of her hand and squeezing it in his own. 'But only if you'll do the same for me.'
Harry kept hold of her hand as she nodded and took another deep breath and they, without having to speak, they turned on the spot.
They landed on the sheltered front lawn of Hermione's house. It was a simple, but elegant house and over the years Hermione had manicured the gardens to perfection. Hermione approached the front door and used her wand to unlock it.
'George came over a few days ago,' Hermione told Harry as he followed her through the door. 'Opened up a few windows and aired it out.'
The inside looked the same as it had when they had left for their holiday. Ron had left the mail on the hall table and Hermione laughed as she picked it up.
'I was always scolding him for leaving the mail here,' she told Harry, putting the mail back where she'd picked it up.
They headed into the living room, then to the dining room and through to the kitchen. Harry started to smile, remembering the times he and Ron had shared drinks in this kitchen whilst the girls were chasing after the kids. He remembered standing in this kitchen, telling Ron that he was an uncle.
It was also in this kitchen that he and Ron had celebrated the births of Rose and Hugo. Harry could see his best friends face as if it had only just happened that morning. So excited he had been. After both had been born, it was hard to stop him thrusting photos of them under the noses of everyone he encountered.
After the kitchen, they went upstairs. Hermione opened the windows in Rose and Hugo's rooms and closed off the door to Ron's study, without going in.
'I can't deal with it yet,' she said softly and Harry didn't even think twice about it. He already knew that he would be doing the same with Ginny's study at his own house very soon.
Standing on the threshold of her bedroom, Hermione felt her eyes welling up with tears. She turned to look at Harry, who stepped sideways into her study. She understood what he meant by it. This was something she had to do on her own.
Stepping inside, she saw that Ron had left his side of the wardrobe wide open, the contents spilling out. Like the mail, it was something that she had scolded him over so many times.
'How can you expect the kids to keep their rooms clean if you can't even manage it?' she had said on so many occasions.
She now bitterly regretted all the tiny fights they'd had over the year about things like his wardrobe, or the mail. They didn't seem worth it now.
His imprint was still on the pillows, sitting slightly askew on the bed. She wondered what it would be like to get into that bed, knowing that she would be sleeping alone for the rest of her life.
She opened the windows, as she had done in the other bedrooms, and made her way out. She had conquered her fear of returning to the house, the fear of the memories that it held. Walking into every room sliced her heart with a cold knife of loneliness and heartbreak, a feeling she knew would ease in time, as hard as it seemed right now.
And now it was time for Harry to make the same visit.
They disapparated from the front lawn to Harry's front lawn. His walk around was a lot quicker than Hermione's. They had a cleaning lady who came in twice a week, a nice old muggle woman from the nearby village who didn't seem to notice the differences and oddities between a 'normal' house and the one she cleaned.
Hermione, exhausted by the emotions of seeing her own house, waiting in the lounge for him. She smiled at the memory of many a coffee shared in this room, sharing news and gossip. Harry didn't know that Hermione had known about each of his children before he did. Ginny had confided in her each time, and for James, Hermione had even been there whilst Ginny did the test.
'I can't do it alone,' she had told her fearfully.
Close to a year later, Hermione had understood that fear of the unknown and Ginny had been there for her.
Just as Ron had been for Harry, Ginny had always been there for Hermione.
Hermione wiped away the few tears that had escaped as Harry came back into the room, looking exhausted. Without saying a word, they held hands tightly and spun on the spot.
No one had noticed that they had been missing for a while when they returned to the pub. The kids had come in from the park and found their parents and everyone was starting to leave. Harry, Hermione, all of their kids and the rest of the Weasley's made their way back to the Burrow, and used the Floo network from there to their-own houses.