Summer of Change (GxG) - A Hermione Fanfic

Chapter 5

After I had accepted Molly's gracious offer, she was rather quick about getting everything moved to the burrow. She said she didn't want to give me time to back out. I wanted to argue that I wouldn't have, but I knew she was right.

I was an overthinker, after all...

I didn't have much, so it wasn't all that much work.

When it was time to go, I looked at the fireplace with trepidation. I hadn't left my apartment in ages. It was my safe space. This tiny apartment was my everything. I had to move here because my home was destroyed by Bellatrix. That bloody psychotic woman was a terror on my life.

I may have had to move, but I didn't move far.

Heathgate was where I grew up, so it was where I stayed.

There weren't that many apartments up on the market there, but I managed to find one in Allison Road. I wasn't worried about money because I had more than I could ever spend with the Ministry giving out reparations for the war.

I thought it was more like a bribe than reparations.

Those daft buggers weren't going to buy my silence, but I would still gladly take their money. I was only a muggle-born witch, after all. I didn't have a vault in Gringotts with millions of galleons. And why wouldn't they want my silence? I had been fighting this war since my first year. Dumbledore was using an army of children to fight Voldemort.

Lost in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed that my hands started to shake.

"Dear? Are you all right?" Molly asked softly.

I blinked a few times and saw that Molly had taken my hands in her own. She was rubbing soothing circles on the backs of my hands to try to calm the shaking.

I didn't know leaving would affect me this much...

"Hermione. Hermione! It's going to be ok. The war, the memories... this apartment... they are just small periods of time that make the whole of your life. Think of this as a new journey. You're looking to the future rather than staying in the past." Molly said.

"You just want me to forget everything that's happened?" I asked angrily.

Molly's eyes held my angry gaze, which made me avert my eyes in shame for my outburst. She wasn't the one I should be angry at. Molly was the one who was helping me the most.

I'm such a git sometimes...

"Sorry..." I said quietly.

Molly took a breath.

I looked back up at her and her eyes had softened.

"No, I don't expect nor want you to forget the past, Hermione. That would be the epitome of foolishness. But... we have to move forward. We have to live. I know it's hard now – believe me, I know, dear – but the worst thing we could do in this life would be to give up. To let the evil we fought so hard against win." Molly said, tears in her eyes.

Molly was right, of course.

What was the point of everything I had gone through and done if I was just going to give it all up after?

"You're right, Molly." I said after a time. "Let's move forward. Together."

"Together," Molly repeated.

I took Molly's hand in mine, intertwined our fingers, and stepped up to the fireplace.

"The burrow!" I said as I tossed the floo powder into the fireplace.

I watched the emerald green flames come alive and stepped in hand-hand with Molly to a new beginning.

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