Cheers, Potter.

You read my mind.

Harry's POV

"Come on, Harry!" Hermione groaned, "you are the slowest person on the planet!"

"That's just silly," I said, trying to annoy her and hoping she'd let me get away without a smack upside the head, "have you met everyone on the planet?"

She'd been rushing us out of the Castle for almost an hour now, Ginny and I decided we'd use that as an excuse to go around at our leisure, thinking ourselves the funniest people to ever grace the Earth – a sentiment that our frazzled friend didn't share. Ginny laughed and leant against the wall for balance from her fits.

"Why do I even try?" Hermione whispered to herself, fingers tangled in her hair and looking a bit feral.

"It's a housewarming party, 'Mione, the house will still be there when we arrive." Ron reasoned, rubbing her back, trying to be reassuring but ultimately failing, judging by the look in her eyes when she looked up at him.

"But we have to go to Diagon Alley first for a gift! Which, by the way, we don't have yet because I sent you and Harry to get it weeks ago and you came back 4 hours later having forgotten what you went out for in the first place!" Her eyes were wild and her lip curled after her rant and Ginny and I shared a look that told me we were both slightly afraid of her at that point, so we decided to start behaving.

Hermione let out a breath I suspected she hadn't known she was holding when we were finally outside the gates and able to apparate away.

Ron wordlessly slid his hand into hers and they disappeared in a swirl.

I held out my elbow for Ginny but she rolled her eyes at me, boisterously swinging her arm around my shoulders, "since when were you a gentleman?" and her chortles were swallowed as we were gulped into the twisting darkness and spat out just outside the Leaky Cauldron.

"Right, I don't have time for you two to do... what you do so stay here, I'll go and pick up the gift and we'll leave for Bill and Fleur's, got it?"

It was clearly a rhetorical question because she didn't wait for us to answer before she hauled Ron by the sleeve in the direction of the Magical Menagerie.

"So, ice cream?" Ginny asked.

"You read my mind,"

It was odd; walking along the road and not seeing groups of young wizards flocking towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, strange that we couldn't hear the music and laughter that usually emanated from the shop front, unusual seeing the doors locked and the lights out... I didn't like it.

"George hasn't been back since –" Ginny began but couldn't finish, her words gripping her throat, refusing to be made real. She coughed, not wanting to feel the rush of emotions no doubt flooding her mind, just as the tears she stubbornly held back flooded her eyes.

"It's okay to be sad Gin," I gripped her hand in mine, letting her know she could be vulnerable with me.

"Not today," she said with resolve, "it's Fleur's day today – she's been planning this for an age. If I turn up all weepy, I'll ruin it,"

I reached around her arms and gave her a reassuring squeeze, "come on then, Fortescue's is just round the corner."

~Ж~

"One salted caramel cone and – shudder – one mint chocolate, please,"

"Did you just say 'shudder'?" I enquired, looking incredulously at Ginny who was finding herself very amusing.

"Mint is nasty, Harry. I don't make the rules," she grinned at me as we were handed our cones.

"She's right, you know," a small voice came from beside me, I looked over and it was none other than Constance. She looked just as messy and ill-kempt as ever with her long sleeves rolled up at different lengths, her jeans hastily chopped at the ankles and her hair twisted into a messy ponytail – though more of her hair seemed to be escaping it.