InsaneJournal

Believe that Magic Works (1/10) - R/Hr - PG-13
Title: Believe that Magic Works (1/10)
Author: shocfix
Pairing: Ron/Hermione
Words: 5700
Rating: PG-13

Written for sugarandginger’s Definitive Ron/Hermione Year Seven Novella Challenge

As the Trio set off on their search for the Horcruxes, Ron finally accepts that he wants to look after his two best friends in completely different ways

Many thanks for the betas by the awesome rosina_alcona, magicofisis and ella_bane, and for running the whole thing to tarie.

And for Glockgal, Hibiscus, Hill, Karasu Hime, Littlun, Lou, Luckilyotto, Moonytoes, Neb and Really Corking for the amazing art – I have no words to tell you how sexy it is when people draw for my stories.


Chapter 1 : One Last Golden Day of Peace
****
It was a hot, heavy summer's day and I had been wearing dress robes all afternoon. But now almost everyone was shedding layers and unbuttoning and I gratefully threw my robes over the back of a chair and rolled up the sleeves of my damp, white shirt. You could still see the marks left by the tendrils of thought that had wrapped themselves around my arms in the Department of Mysteries, but I didn't mind them so much anymore.



Somehow we had all grown up a lot since then, and if me, Harry and Hermione were going to leave school and go off on this heroic quest, well, I reckon I shouldn't be bothered by a few scars. Heaven knows how may more we'd have by the time this was over, right?

To come home alive was all I was hoping for - I don't care how many scars I picked up in the process. For all three of us to come home alive.

I took another mouthful of butterbeer and watched the couples circling lazily round the garden.



Mum frowned when she saw me in my shirtsleeves, but Dad expertly twirled her away before she could say anything. Honestly, even Bill had taken off his heavy robes now, and he was looking a bit hot and flustered. Between the scars. See, what did I have to complain about? My scars were nothing compared to his, and look at him.

Look at him holding his wife. His stunningly beautiful wife, who didn't have a hair out of place as she placed a slim hand on his shoulder and gazed up at him. I was really impressed by Fleur. Yeah, very funny, I'd always been very impressed by Fleur.

Fleur Delacour was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, if a bit proud. But I preferred Fleur Weasley. She was a good person, and she was more proud of Bill than anything. She loved him.

Love.

There was a lot of it about that night. Well, yeah, it was a wedding, but couples at a wedding are usually all soppy and misty-eyed and other stuff I'm not very good at.

That night all the couples were fiercely, almost defiantly, together. Were wartime weddings always like this?

My intense new sister-in-law had quelled her family's disapproving looks and comments within moments of their arrival at the Burrow. Mum and even Ginny looked really impressed.

Charlie had arrived with a dark, rather scary, woman called Ileana, who didn't speak a word of English and was practically strangling him as they danced; she was holding him so tight.

Tonks couldn't see how grim Remus looked as they danced slowly, her head tucked under his chin.

Even my parents looked tired. The first wedding their brood had managed and they should look happier than this.

Everyone held their loved ones tightly.

Everyone told their loved ones how they felt.

My eyes slid naturally to the two people I loved most in the world.

Harry and Hermione were sitting opposite me at the long, debris-covered table, Harry nursing a butterbeer and Hermione cradling a cup of punch between her hands. Harry was in his shirtsleeves, too, and Hermione was wearing something pale blue and floaty.

She was murmuring seriously in his ear and he was nodding, slowly. I would have bet every Galleon I didn't own that, even at a wedding, they were going over our plans for the next few days. They were the most single-minded people I had ever met.

We hadn't told anyone about our, well, our Quest, yet, letting my mum have the wedding before dumping this on her. We were going to do that the following day, and I can't say I was looking forward to it.

Then, the day after would be Harry's birthday, and Remus was taking us to the Ministry to take our Apparition tests.

Then we were going.

Going to track down and destroy the Relics of the Founders.

Going to track down You Know Who and his scaly companion.

Just the three of us.

My mum was going to kill me.

I watched Hermione's unceasing stream of advice and speculation pouring into Harry's ear and smiled at the two of them.

I would do anything for them. Die for them.

Looking at them sitting there, so grown-up in their wedding finery, I could still see the skinny eleven-year-old boy in his huge hand-me-down clothes, sharing his sweets with me; I could still see the bossy eleven-year-old girl in her perfect robes, criticising my wand-work.

I'd die for them.

She was looking so earnestly at him, but his eyes were idly following someone dancing past behind me and I turned to look.

Ginny was being thrown around by Fred and everyone was laughing at them.

She looked pretty good in her golden bridesmaid's robes, her face flushed from trying to keep up with Fred, her hair escaping from its elaborate crown-thingy.

I turned back to look at Harry's face just as it closed down, but I caught the same defiant, lovesick look so many people were wearing.

With an added layer of noble-protective-self-sacrifice that was pure Harry.

Ginny dating boys had got to me in a big way – especially when I was the only big brother left at school. If I hadn't let her get to me like that I would never have let the Lavender thing happen, would I?

I had always had this vague thought that no one but Harry was good enough for her, but it completely took me by surprise when they actually got together.

And in front of everyone. Where did he find the stones to kiss her in front of everyone – and then just drag her away from the party! She'd just caught the Snitch and won the Cup – and her stupid Quidditch groupie drags her away from the celebrations to, well, I don't want to know.

Suffice it to say, he asked me to tell him about the match when they got back, so I don't think they found much time for talking.

Anyway, as long as I didn't have to watch it, I really was pleased they were together.

I know I owed him big time for putting him through the whole Lavender thing, but having his new girlfriend hanging around with us the whole time was not a problem.

And we're probably not the easiest family to swallow whole, but her new boyfriend got on with us all really well.

And they were sickeningly happy together.

Before.

Harry had tried justifying himself to me. Haltingly explaining that he had had to break up with her, to keep her safe. But Ginny understood why he'd done it, and I did, too.

They'd been living on borrowed time, those few sunlit weeks together, but at least he'd been there.

There is no way the three of us could go off, facing Death Eaters and more, leaving her at school with a target painted on her back: "The Chosen One's Girlfriend! Come and get me!"

They were both being very adult, very responsible and very self-sacrificingly noble.

Which put me in a bad position.

With my girl.

I snorted and Hermione looked over at me and raised an eyebrow, but I shook my head and she went back to lecturing Harry, smiling slightly.

OK, she wasn't my girl yet, but all it needed was for me to say it.

Since my whole brush-with-death thing on my birthday we had reached a sort of unspoken agreement. Of course, at first, there was also an unspoken, "you have to break up with Lavender," which I was beyond pitiful at. I thought Hermione would get angry with me every time I hid from my unfortunate girlfriend, but she just smiled this incredible, mysterious little smile that completely enslaved me.

And we almost never argued anymore.

I'll admit now that I always enjoyed arguing with her; enjoyed how passionate she got; seeing her eyes snap and sparkle and her chest heave. Well, yes.

That was when I was young and stupid.

Maybe I should thank Ginny and Lavender. I mean, I won't.

As if.

I regret the Lavender thing, I really, really do.

There were so many things wrong with that relationship. In a spirit of pure self-preservation, there was the fact that Fred and George know she called me Won-Won. That is a lifetime of ammunition she handed them. And it is only because Harry is such a good friend that they don't know about that necklace.

There is the fact that I saw almost nothing of my actual friends for months – Hermione kept well away from me and I know why and I feel awful. Harry took such good care of her. He is such a good friend and I am such an arse.

If I am being honest, there is also the fact that it was a rotten thing to do to Lavender. She's all right, is Lavender, and doesn't deserve a boyfriend who pretends to be asleep or hides whenever he sees her. A boyfriend who is in love with another girl.

Can you imagine what I'd do to a bloke who did that to Ginny – or Hermione.

But there are a couple of good things to come out of my famous doomed relationship.

To be brutally honest again, seeing as Hermione won't know I said this, there was all the snogging practise. What sixteen-year-old boy is going to pass up something like that?

A relatively stress-free atmosphere to find out exactly what to do with his tongue, when to breathe and where to put his hands?

Knowing that the worst that can happen if he does something really badly or completely inappropriate is that he'll be dumped.

And that is something that I could almost thank Lavender and Ginny for.

Just imagine if I hadn't worked out all this stuff with Lavender.

Just imagine if Hermione and I had circled each other for another year or two, pushing each other’s buttons until I snapped and grabbed her.

Sticking my tongue down her throat and squeezing her chest too hard wouldn't just get me dumped, it would ruin everything. Our friendship, Harry's support system, everything. The future of the Wizarding World rested on how good a kisser I was.

But now there was a chance I wouldn't blow it. That I wouldn't be a clumsy idiot.

When we got together.

And that was the thing I couldn't stop thinking about. No, not the being together. Oh, who am I kidding, yes, of course I fantasised about us being together.

But when I was thinking clearly, and thinking about what we were planning on doing this year, I couldn't decide what to do.

Could I stand to be with her twenty-four hours a day, without being able to touch her? Would it get in the way of our 'job' if we were together? Would it be even worse if we weren't?

I watched Harry watching Ginny. He'd done the right thing, but Ginny wouldn't be with us, so that wasn't the same thing. Hermione would be right there, every day. I wouldn't be putting her in any extra danger. Hey, if only I could persuade her to stay safely at school.

At that thought I actually laughed out loud and everyone turned to look at me. Hermione frowned and Harry smirked, as I couldn't stop laughing. Oh well, it'd make Harry laugh.

"Hermione," I said, leaning towards them and speaking in a low voice. "Y'know the whole leaving Ginny here to keep her safe thingy?"

She looked surprised and Harry frowned at me.

"I don't suppose I can convince you to stay behind too, can I?" I tried to keep a straight face as she bristled, but Harry's face lit up and he snorted with laughter. Our eyes met and we both collapsed back into our chairs, laughing hard at her indignant reaction.

"Very funny," she said looking scornfully at us. "I don't know why I bother with the pair of you." But her lip was twitching and she smiled wryly as we sniggered together.

Just then the music changed to something slower and Harry stopped laughing and his eyes irresistibly sought Ginny. I sighed and caught Hermione's eye and decided that it was time. We had to talk about it now; we had to know what we were doing when we talked to my parents in the morning. If we wanted to be treated as adults, well, it was time for us to grow up.

I cleared my throat, nodded towards the dancers and said, "Hermione?" as casually as I could.

Her eyes opened very wide and she blushed beautifully. "I'd love to," she said quietly.

We both stood and she came round the table to stand in front of me. "I, uh, I thought I should ask you before anyone else did, this time," I said, grinning down at her and she rolled her eyes to the heavens, looking very put-upon, but I took her hand and led her out amongst the dancers, feeling Harry's eyes on us.

She turned to face me and I put my arms around her. "I don't know what I'm doing here, Hermione," I said.

"We'll make it up as we go along, Ron," she smiled up at me and wrapped her arms around my neck, turning to rest her cheek on my chest.


I took a deep breath and we started moving. It wasn't too bad. Most people were just swaying slowly to the music, deep in thought. I caught a delighted George's eye over Hermione's head and closed my eyes and pulled her closer. Sod him.

After a few minutes it felt like I had been holding her forever. It felt like I could go on holding her forever.

"Hermione?" I whispered.

"Hmmm?" she answered.

"I think we need to talk about this," I said tentatively.

She stiffened. "Ronald Weasley, if you are going to say that this doesn't change anything…"

"No!" I interrupted. "No, no, no, no, no."

She looked up at me, suspiciously.

"Really," I said. "This changes everything. But we still need to talk – I thought you'd be pleased – girls like talking.”

She snorted and unwrapped herself from my arms and led the way back to our table. Harry had disappeared, and, scanning the garden, I found him on the dance-floor, his arms around Ginny, his face buried in her hair. The pair of them were barely moving and they'd have some explaining to do in the morning, too.

Hermione sat and folded her hands in her lap, primly. "Well?" she said.

I captured one hand and interlaced our fingers. "Hermione," I said, seriously. "I know I should have done this a year ago; I know I was awful to you last year. I don't know what I've done to deserve you, especially to deserve you waiting for me."

"No, nor do I," she interrupted.

I laughed. "I know," I said. "I mean it. You are wonderful, and I don't deserve you."

"I wasn't always that nice to you last year, either," she said, quietly. "I just couldn't believe…"

"No, don't," I said. "We were both jealous and stupid."

"You really know how to smooth talk a girl, don't you, Ron?" she laughed.

"Well, exactly; you know I'm awful at things like this; you have to help me out here."

"What exactly are you asking me, Ron?"

"That’s the thing that's been driving me crazy." She rolled her eyes. "I'm asking you to be my girlfriend." She smiled. "But…"

"But?" she hissed.

"I think we should take things slowly," I explained.

Her eyes flashed and she snatched her hands away. "Slowly?" she echoed. "After four years?"

"Aw, Hermione, give me a chance here!" I wailed. "That's not what I meant."

"Go on," she prompted.

"I want to be together, I want to make it official. But we can't do normal 'dating', can we? We can't leave Harry on one side of the tent while we snog on the other side. We are telling my parents tomorrow morning that we aren't going back to school, that we are following Harry on an unspecified secret mission. We have to be able to tell them that we are of age and we are going to be responsible.

"I think we should admit that we are together, we shouldn't lie. But the adult thing to do would be to put Harry first and take things slowly." I watched for her reaction.

Which was swift.

She leaped up, sat in my lap and kissed me.

I was so startled I forgot to kiss back.

She sat back and touched my face. "Ron, I am so sorry for jumping down your throat like that."

I'm afraid I smirked and she hit me. "Not like that!" she complained. "You really have thought seriously about this, haven't you?"

"Of course," I huffed as I put my arms around her and bent for a soft kiss. "This is way too important to mess up, Hermione. Not just for us – that would be stressful enough – but for Harry, too."

"We won't mess up, Ron, we really won't. We've both waited so long."

She looked scarily intense and I had to make a joke about it. "But the safety of the Wizarding World depends on my kissing-talents – that can't be good!"

She smiled up at me. "I have faith in you, Ron," she whispered.

It was ridiculous, but I preened and she laughed.

oOoOo

I went up to my room that night with a ridiculous grin on my face.

I had finally done it.

I felt I could do anything!

We had a full house, of course, and I had Harry and the twins in with me, but they hadn't come up yet, so I lay on my bed, hands behind my head and stared at the Cannons Keeper on the poster on the sloping ceiling.

I thought maybe I should redecorate. I don't think Hermione would let me kiss her in a room full of Quidditch posters. Yes, when we returned home, victorious, I would redecorate. If a grateful Wizarding World didn't give us a mansion to live in, with gold plates to eat off and a Quidditch pitch in the back garden, that is.

I was still grinning like an idiot when Harry came in, sat on my bed and raised an eyebrow at me.

"OK, spare me the gory details, but what are you smiling at?" he asked, leaning against my raised knees.

"Nothing really," I shrugged. "I was just thinking about my girlfriend."

He smiled down at me. "You have a girlfriend? What girl would sacrifice herself for the sake of womankind everywhere?"

I pushed him off the bed. "Very funny. You're not going to get to me tonight, Harry. I did it. I asked her."

He knelt beside the bed and goggled at me. "And it only took you three years?" he teased.

"Hermione claims it's four," I winced.

He laughed. "Seriously, Ron, well done, it's about time."

I saw his face fall slightly, though he tried to keep smiling. "It won't change anything," I assured him, sitting up on the side of the bed and hauling him up to sit beside me.

He snorted at me. "How can it not change anything?"

"Because we've discussed it; we're going to take it slowly…"

He snorted again. "Any slower and you'd be going backwards!"

I slung an arm around his shoulders. "Now, now, Harry," I complained. "That is just being mean, when Hermione and I are being so grown-up about it."

"OK, explain how and why you are 'taking it slowly'," he said.

"We are together; we are going to admit it tomorrow when we tell my parents we're going. But we are not going to be able to 'date', are we? And we're not going to make it weird for you, Harry."

"Oh, Ron, no, that's not fair!"

"It's fine, really, really it is. It's just not the right time for snogging everywhere, is it? It's not your fault, Harry."

"I don't know what to say," he said, shrugging.

"Say you're happy for us?" I said, shaking him.

"And you'll get some snogging in, sometimes?" he asked, smirking.

"Oh, here and there," I replied.

"Then I couldn't be happier," he said, shoving me.

I shoved back, and he pushed me back on the bed and I shrieked like a girl, and, of course, that is when Fred and George came in.

So I didn't get a chance to ask him about Ginny.

oOoOo

The next morning, Fred and George just assumed we were as hung over as they were and they barely teased me about slow dancing with Hermione before Apparating back to their shop.

Harry looked pale and nervous and Hermione gave him a swift hug as we passed Ginny's room and the girls came out.

Then she looked up at me and I opened my arms and she flowed into them. I closed my eyes so I couldn't see how Harry and Ginny were looking at each other.

I felt Hermione take a deep breath and she stepped away from me. "Right," she said briskly. "Harry will speak first, and then Ron and then me. Are we ready?"

"So not," I said. She slapped my arm and we went down to the kitchen.

My mum and dad were sitting at one end of the table, with Remus and Tonks, who had stayed the night in the twins' old room.

We sat down opposite my parents and Mum automatically started to stand and get us some breakfast.

"I'll get it, Mum," Ginny said. "They've got something to talk to you about."

"To all four of you," Harry added as Remus stood up.

We looked at them.

They looked at us.

Well, Remus and Tonks looked at Harry, Mum and Dad looked at me.

"You want to know what the Order is doing?" Remus asked Harry.

"No, not as such,” Harry replied and they all looked startled. "We want to tell you what we will be doing, and what we need from you."

I wish I'd had a camera. They all looked like they'd been hit by a falling tree. I looked over at Ginny, at the stove. She looked so proud of the new, improved, grown-up Harry Potter.

Dad was the first to recover. "OK, Harry, " he said. "What will you be doing?"

"Well," said Harry, "first of all I want to deal with 12 Grimmauld Place. Can I assume that the Fidelius Charm is still there, but useless without a new Secret Keeper to be able to tell people about it, and that the wards and anti-Muggle measures the Blacks already had are still in place?"

Remus looked impressed. "Yes," he said, "and Tonks and I have strengthened the wards."

"Good, well, I'd like Tonks to take Hermione to Hogwarts tomorrow; I'd like Professor Flitwick to teach her the Fidelius Charm so she can redo it on the house."

"Just like that?" my mum asked.

"Well, yes," said Harry. "It's my house and I'd like it to be protected again – for all our sakes – and I have asked Hermione to be the new Secret Keeper."

I felt Hermione glowing next to me.

"Fair enough," said Dad, and Mum turned to glare at him.

"No, Arthur, we can't allow them…"

"Hermione is of age, Mrs Weasley," Harry interrupted gently. "I know she can perform the charm and I need her to do this."

Mum blinked. She really hadn't got the hang of grown-up Harry. She subsided, still bristling.

"Thank you," said Harry, treating the issue as settled and moving on. "Remus, when you take Ron and me into town tomorrow? After our tests at the Ministry we have a lot of things to buy in Diagon Alley."

"Fine," Remus replied, while Mum looked suspicious.

"What things?" she asked.

"I'll come to that in a moment, Mrs Weasley. I want to tell you what our plans are."

Harry took a deep breath and Hermione took my hand under the table.

"Last year," Harry started, "I was working with Professor Dumbledore on a way to defeat Voldemort."

They all blinked at him.

"On the night that Professor Dumbledore was murdered, we had left the school together, to attempt to put part of that plan into action. I cannot tell you what we did – I didn't even tell Professor McGonagall, when she asked - but I can tell you that I am going to carry on his work, now that he is dead."

"Harry," gasped Remus. "All that Chosen One rubbish in the papers – you don't have to do this alone."

"I'm not alone," Harry said simply. "I have Ron and Hermione with me, and I hope I can count on all of you to help us out, if we need it."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Mum demanded.

"Mum, we're not going back to school," I said quietly.

"Oh, yes you are," she started, but Dad put his hand on her arm.

"Mum, we cannot sit in school and create jogging teacups while V-Voldemort is killing people. Harry has to do this, and we're going with him."

"Of course you are," Dad said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his robe. "I'm proud of you both – of all three of you."

"Arthur!" Mum snapped. "I won't let Ron leave school!"

"Do you want Harry to go by himself?" Dad asked her.

"What? No, of course not!"

"Well, Harry is of age tomorrow, and he has no parents to answer to. He'll go; alone if necessary," Dad said gently.

Mum deflated completely. "But go where?" she asked Harry plaintively.

Hermione answered for him. "Well, we'll be based at Grimmauld Place," she said. "But we'll need to travel and Harry will be buying a tent and supplies tomorrow, but hopefully we'll be able to stay at the Leaky Cauldron or the Three Broomsticks when we are in the area. And we'll need access to the school, too – both to ask the professors for help at times, and to use the library."

"I'll arrange that with Professor McGonagall when we're at the school tomorrow," Tonks put in, softly and Hermione smiled. "She's been rebuilding the wards, but the three of you can have the same access the Aurors protecting the school will have."

Harry nodded solemnly at her and she nodded back, with a wink.

"Promise you'll firecall me every night?" Mum asked me fiercely.

"Mum, that's not a practical promise," I said. "We could be somewhere perfectly safe, but with no floo-connected fireplace and you'd panic!"

"What about the DA coins?" Ginny put in from where she stood at the stove, a frying pan of congealed scrambled eggs behind her.

"What coins?" Dad asked.

"In my fourth year," she explained. "When Harry was teaching us DADA, he needed a way to tell everyone when the next meeting was. Hermione put a Protean Charm on some fake Galleons that displayed the time of the meeting, instead of the Goblin serial number.

"So they could take coins with them and just reset the message to 'OK' and the date each evening when they turn in – and then we'd know they were safe, but if the coins are found, well, they wouldn’t give anything away."

Mum, Dad, Remus and Tonks looked stunned.

"See?" Remus chuckled. "If Hermione could produce a Protean Charm at sixteen, I think she can take care of them all now she's of age!" Hermione smiled.

"Well, OK," Mum said, finally. "You've thought this through seriously, haven't you?"

"Yes, Mum," I said.

"What about practical matters?" she asked.

"Like what?" Harry said.

"Well, you will use separate rooms at Grimmauld Place, of course, and you'll buy a two-bedroom tent, and you'll take two rooms at the Leaky Cauldron. It's bad enough that you'll be unchaperoned, but I'm not having anyone say anything about Hermione's reputation that could be sensibly avoided."

There was a ringing and rather embarrassing silence.

"Mrs Weasley," Harry said, flushing, "we don't really want to advertise our presence to Death Eaters by taking two rooms and ostentatiously making sure everyone knows."

Mum opened her mouth to object but I cut her off. "Mum! When possible we'll take two rooms, but we're not kicking up a fuss about it." I squeezed Hermione's hand and then picked it up and placed our joined hands on the table, where everyone stared at them. "And anyway," I said, "we’re not exactly unchaperoned. Hermione and I are together, so Harry can chaperone us!"

Dad laughed and Mum glared at him.

"Congratulations," Tonks beamed at us.

"Oh, Ron, this changes things," Mum said.

"No, it doesn’t, Molly," Dad said firmly. "They are of age, there is a war on and they want to be together. I am not going to tell them that they can't be, or that they have to wait until the war is over. I don't have that right; we had our children during the last war. I trust them to behave responsibly."

"Thanks, Dad," I said, moved beyond words.

"Thank you, Mr Weasley," Hermione whispered.

"And what about you?" Mum snapped, whirling on Ginny.

"What have I done?" Ginny asked indignantly.

"Don't think I missed your inappropriate behaviour at the wedding, young lady, even if your father persuaded me to let it go until today!"

"I think I'm in love with your father," Harry whispered to me. I snorted and Mum spared me a glance but, obviously thwarted by my new, adult, status, returned her attention to Ginny.

"Inappropriate?" Ginny said. "So Ron can be trusted not to be caught in bed with his girlfriend by Death Eaters, but I'm not allowed to dance at a wedding?"

"Ginny!" Mum gasped.

"Gin, please, not helping," Harry moaned.

She didn't look all that sorry, but she backed down.

"Mrs Weasley?" Harry said quietly.

Mum turned to him, still prickling.

"It's my fault. I'm sorry you thought Ginny and my behaviour was inappropriate," he said. "We… we were together last term, and we were terribly happy together, but I can't put her in danger like that, and I'm sorry. I should have thought about that before we got together. We've broken up and she'll be safe, now."

Mum looked stunned. It was hardly a secret that she'd always fancied the idea of Harry and Ginny getting together, and now she'd missed it.

"I just couldn't resist asking her to dance last night," Harry continued. "I'm sorry if I upset anyone."

"You didn't," Dad answered, Mum was obviously still too stunned for speech. The twins would kick themselves for missing it.

"Ginny?" Dad asked.

"What?" she said, eyeing him carefully.

"You don't have any plans to spoil everyone's responsible behaviour, do you?" he asked. I bit my lip. He'd never bought Ginny's innocent act.

"No, Dad, I don't," she said seriously. "This isn't a game. I can't Apparate and that would put me in far more danger than they are, and they'd be at risk babysitting me. I will stay at school until I can actually be of use; I won't do anything to cause Harry extra problems – he can think of me as safe and forget about me."

She lifted her chin and met Harry's eyes.

"Never," he whispered and she turned to look out of the window, blinking rapidly.

"Owls!" she blurted out, pointing, and, sure enough, four owls were approaching the Burrow.

Dad got up and opened the window and four school owls flew in, dropping large parchment envelopes with the school crest in front of me, Harry, Hermione and Ginny.

"Oh!" Hermione whispered, stroking her envelope and I squeezed her hand, tightly. Harry and I were quite happy to give up our final year, but I know how much school meant to my Hermione, even when she was doing the right thing without a second thought.

"Well, I'm still a schoolgirl," Ginny said briskly and slit open her letter. "Blah, blah, the school is reopening; sixth years will be allowed to start their NEWT classes, based on the professors' predicted OWL results, then sit OWL exams in October. And a very DADA-heavy booklist. I wonder who will be teaching it this year?" she murmured.

"That would be me," Tonks put in and Ginny beamed at her.

"Well, I can't imagine that Professor McGonagall expects me back, " Harry said, ripping his envelope open and reading it swiftly. "She hopes to see me in September, if not before, and she hopes I'll continue as Quidditch Captain."

Hermione looked up at me and I shook my head and smiled down at her. Missing Quidditch was the least of my problems.

"Gin?" Harry said and she raised an eyebrow at him. "I'll recommend to Professor McGonagall that she makes you captain, OK?"

Ginny nodded, solemnly. "I won't let Charlie down," she said and Harry laughed.

Hermione took a deep breath and opened her envelope, tipping the enclosed badge into her hand and holding it tightly in her fist while she unfolded and read her letter. I saw her swallow, hard.

"Hermione?" I prompted.

She sighed. "Head Girl," she said simply. She looked tearfully up at me. I put an arm round her shoulders and kissed her temple. Harry looked uncomfortable.

"Oh, Harry, it's OK," Hermione assured him. "I'm just being silly. It's just that this would have meant so much to me. Before."

She took his hand. "Really," she insisted and he nodded.

"Well?" he said looking at my envelope.

I snorted as I ripped it open, "What can mine say? Maybe she'll offer me the Transfiguration job, so she can concentrate on being Headmistress?" I joked as I unfolded the letter. "Blimey!"

"What?" asked Hermione.

I handed her the letter. "Oh, Ron!" she breathed, handing it over the table to my mum.

Mum read it and carefully smoothed it flat.

"Head Boy," she said in a choked voice.

I tipped the badge out of the envelope and looked at it, remembering Percy wearing it oh so pompously, remembering Bill wearing it when I was really small.

Remembering seeing myself as Head Boy in the Mirror of Erised six years ago, and knowing that I would see something completely different if I looked in the mirror today. Knowing that I'd see me, Harry and Hermione, safe and well after all this was over.

"You, um, you'll take them back to McGonagall tomorrow, Hermione?" I asked, my voice cracking embarrassingly.

"Of course," she whispered, reaching up to kiss me on the cheek.

oOoOo