Harry woke with a start. A quick glance at his clock told him it was ten o'clock in the morning. It had been a while since he had a nightmare and this one had been especially brutal. He had been back in Godric's Hollow fighting Nagini. Only instead of him and Hermione escaping, Nagini had managed to get a hold of Hermione and he had been forced to watch while the snake slowly squeezed the life out of her. He used to get nightmares like this every night after the war, but after long talks with Hermione, they had slowly become less and less frequent. This had been his first one in over a week; probably brought on by the fact that only two days ago, Ron and Hermione had gone to Australia to look for Hermione's parents.
It had been just over two months since Voldemort was defeated and due to the many funerals, helping the Ministry round up leftover Death Eaters, the trials and the rebuilding of Hogwarts, this was the first opportunity Hermione had had to look for her parents. Ron, of course, had insisted on going, despite Mrs. Weasley's protests that he was needed at home. Harry couldn't blame Ron for wanting to go. He and Hermione hadn't really had the time to explore their new relationship and the general atmosphere at the Burrow was, to be completely honest, rather depressing.
Fred's death was felt heavily throughout the home, especially at meal times. Mrs. Weasley could be heard sobbing at times when she didn't think anyone was listening. Mr. Weasley had lost much of his jovial manner, though he still tried to keep up appearances. And George, who had closed up the joke shop, moved back home and rarely left his room, even for meals. When you did see him, he wouldn't say a word and would simply gaze around with a haunted blank expression on his face.
It had been a large part of the reason he himself had left the Burrow and moved into Grimmauld place after only a month. He just couldn't deal with their grief on top of his own. And even though he knew there was no reason for it, there was also a bit of guilt thrown into the mix. He even thought he saw a bit of accusation in the occasional looks he got from the others; though he had to admit he was probably imagining them. Of course Mr. and Mrs. Weasley assured him he could stay there as long as he needed to, he just simply couldn't stay.
An even bigger factor that hastened his departure, was Ginny. One of the things he was looking forward to after the war was getting back together with her once the dust settled. However, after less than a week of staying at the Burrow, Ginny had cornered him in the garden and started aggressively snogging him. It completely caught him off guard and he reflexively pulled himself away. She just gave him a confused look and then smiled and said she'd give him more time. Unfortunately for him, it seemed "more time" meant less than a day because the next morning at breakfast she sat next to him while trying to subtly rub her leg against his while giving him not-so-subtle salacious looks.
It went on like this for some time but it wasn't long before Harry realized that he and Ginny obviously wouldn't work out like he had hoped. It was obvious to him that she was acting this way to cope with her grief and he just couldn't use her that way; especially if she was going to be that clingy. He had brought this up with her and she appeared as though she understood, but had continued with her behavior the very next day. After a few weeks of that along with the depressing atmosphere, he finally had had enough and announced at dinner one evening that he would be moving into Grimmauld Place the next day.
What had him most concerned for Ginny though, was when the next day arrived and he was about to step into the Floo, Ginny came into the kitchen with all her things packed into her trunk. She had somehow thought his moving into Grimmauld Place meant that he wanted her to move in with him, despite Harry never hinting at it and making himself clear more than once over the past few weeks that their relationship was done. It took a great deal of convincing from both Molly and Arthur for her to stay put and let Harry go on alone.
