Love Happens

Chapter 21

"What the hell Gin! You scared me!" Hermione exclaimed placing a hand on her chest, trying to calm her heart. "Well the intention was to surprise but shock works too...." Ginny smiled while helping herself with a spoonful of Baskin and Robbins ice cream. "I was going to eat that" Hermione said while putting her bag down and grabbing a spoon.

"Is this how you greet your friend?"

"Well to the one's who show up uninvited" she replied rollng her eyes. "Good to see you Mione" "Yeah it's great to see you too Ginny" Hermione said in a sincere tone this time. "Anyways not that I'm not happy but what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to tell you something which I'm actually not allowed to. I'm breaking rules here for you okay?"

"Ginny since where have you ever cared about the rules?" Hermione enquired laughing.

"Mione.." Ginny took a deep breath..."Bellatrix is not working alone. She has got Antonio Dolohov and Fenrir Greyback as her sidekicks. Remember how we never found their bodies after the war" she paused for a while letting the news sink in.

Ofcourse she remembered. That was one of Hermione's main concerns after the war. However she was too shocked to respond. Just had she had begun to recover from the war, her life had once again spiralled into a game of cat and mouse. She hated it. She hated how her moving to Forks had began to feel like a hideout and not as a fresh start anymore. She hated that even after sacrificing everything and fighting a bloody war for so long she did not get a chace to live a normal life. Before she knew, tears were streaming down her face and dripping onto the kitchen counter.

"Oh, Mione I'm so sorry" Ginny hugged her. It took Hermione a while to calm down but once she did, she took a deep breath, looked Ginny in the eye and said "What needs to be done?"

"I knew you would take this in a pragmatic way" Ginny said smiling "Harry, Ron and the rest of the minstry are doing their best. Malfoy is here and he's one of the best Aurors"

"Why do I have a hard time believing that?" Hermione rolled here eyes.

"Maybe because you've hated him since I don't know.... forever?"

"And you guys have been best friends, since exactly when?" Hermione scoffed.

"Tell me Mione, has he been awful to you?"

"No, but I'm presuming it's because of Harry and Ron's death threats?"

"Look after the war, while all of us were busy with recovering in our own ways, he had been working his ass off trying to be better. Don't get me wrong, he's still an ass, I think that is a default setting, but he isn't as horrible as he we think he is."

"God, trust me I know that, but I've been hating him for so long, I don't think I can turn it around anymore."

After a while, Hermione asked "Are you ever going to tell me the real reason why you are here?" Ginny's ice cream went down the wrong pipe hearing that...... "What do you mean?" She asked laughing nervously. "Spit it out Ginny. I'm not the brightest witch of our age for nothing."

"Fine. Hermione we are worried that by return of Bellatrix, there may be a target on Andromeda and Teddy's back. We were wondering if they could come here and stay with you?"

'What kind of an idiotic question is that Ginevra? Ofcourse they're welcome to stay here as long as they want. You know I love them."

"I knew it! Now that it is established, speaking of love....." she smirked.

Hermione groaned. It was going to be a long night.