Trust Me (Drarry)

Chapter 48

HERMIONE POV

I couldn't believe that we had managed to get in AND out of the Ministry. Sure, we had almost been captured by Yaxley, but I had just about managed to shake him off as we reached Grimmauld Place. He let go when he assumed that that was where we were stopping, but I knew immediately that we couldn't stay there any longer.

Ron got Splinched as we Disapparated again, and he's still recovering weeks later. He's been a foul mood, snapping at Harry and I, and moping inside the tent. We've had to walk everywhere as he isn't strong enough to Apparate, and we've been able to find very little food.

I think we're all struggling to stay positive. The joy we felt after recovering the locket was short-lived; the stupid thing would not be damaged by any form of magic or manual force. So we were taking it in turns to wear it until we figured out how to destroy it. At the moment it was my turn.

We had been walking for a couple of hours, and it was beginning to get dark, so we decided to set up camp for the night. The boys put up the tent in silence while I placed the protective enchantments. Ron immediately went inside and started fiddling with his radio, something which annoyed Harry to no end.

But I knew that it was the only source of comfort he had. The lack of news was slowly making everyone crazy, and the fact that Ron was the only one with family directly involved in the  action meant he was the most affected.

Of course Harry and I were worried too. The Weasleys felt like family, and we maybe feared for their lives almost as much as Ron. I particularly thought about Fred. I missed him so much. And Ginny.

"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked suddenly, interrupting my train of thought.
"The Weasleys," I responded simply.

He agreed silently, and sat beside me a distance away from the tent.

"Are you worried about Fred?"
I shrugged. "Him and George can handle themselves. I just hope to Merlin that they've taken down the U-No-Poo adverts in their window..."

We both laughed nervously. I had sort of been joking, but there was also a genuine concern that they may still be displaying the sign in their shop window.

"And Ginny?" He asked, and I hesitated before answering, having spotted the change in his tone. I looked across at him, and he was averting my gaze, playing with his hands.
"What about her?"
"Are you... worried about her?"
"No," I said determinedly, "she's a fighter."

Harry nodded, and we fell into silence again.

"She told me what happened."
Harry looked horrified. "She what?"
"Not that she needed to!" I added quickly. "I was washing the potatoes in the kitchen at the time, so I heard everything."

I decided not to mention that Fred and George had also been with me.

Mrs Weasley had been doing her best to separate Harry, Ron and I as much as possible, in the hope that if she could stop us making plans for the trip, we would have to put it on hold.

So the day before the wedding, which was in fact Harry's seventeenth birthday, she gave us all different jobs to do - at least until Harry's birthday dinner that evening. Currently, Fred and George were "helping me with the potatoes" (they were actually just chucking skin at each other), Ron was in the attic with his dad "finding extra chairs" (they were actually checking on the ghoul), and Harry was tidying the lounge with Ginny.

I wasn't TRYING to listen to their conversation, but it helped that Fred and George fell silent to listen as they began to have a heart-to-heart.

"I didn't know what to get you for your birthday," Ginny said softly.
"You didn't have to get me anything," Harry replied quickly.
"I wanted to get you something to remember me by. In case you met some... Veela or something while you're away."