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Author: Kathryn Story: Observations Rating: Young Teens Setting: Post-DH Status: Completed Reviews: 23 Words: 17,716
Disclaimer: All the characters, places, objects in this fanfic belong to JK Rowling. I'm just borrowing them for a while. Hermione finished using her wand to cut up a large loaf of freshly baked bread before carrying it to the over spilling kitchen table. Molly Weasley always managed to cook up a feast and right now that was demonstrated by the variety of cooked vegetables that had been picked that morning and strips of chicken to complement them. Every inch of the table was covered with bowls, plates and goblets. Given the amount of food that was now layering the table, Hermione wouldn’t have been surprised if strengthening spells had been used. Hermione finally managed to find a place for the bread right at the far end next to a bowl full of new potatoes. With all the food in its place, she took her seat next to Ron. The small kitchen at The Burrow was cramped with both members of the Weasley family and the Order of the Phoenix. There hadn’t been a day since she had arrived that the Weasley family home had not been filled with at least half a dozen Order members. The meals were always followed by a meeting in the living room as they crammed into the small room and opened the Firewhisky. There was so much to be discussed and decided now. There were so many Weasleys in the Order of the Phoenix, it was just easier to hold the meetings here and due to the known friendships that Mr and Mrs Weasley had with many of the Order members it was also safer if anyone was watching them. There was nothing peculiar about Remus and Tonks showing up at The Burrow since Bill and Fleur had been the witnesses at their wedding and with a wedding taking place here in just a couple of weeks there was bound to be more people coming and go. Not to mention that Harry was more comfortable here, surrounded by all the people that loved him and then there was the fact that Mrs Weasley refused to leave Ginny alone in the house given the current climate as the rest of them attended meetings. Besides, The Burrow was much more homely than any of the other places that had been given high security. Hermione settled herself in a seat opposite Harry as she made her way into the kitchen. She offered her friend a small smile, which Harry looked too preoccupied to return. In fact, she could not remember seeing Harry genuinely smile since the day of Dumbledore’s funeral and he had broken up with Ginny. Harry seemed to have so much going on in his mind. She knew that he had a noble streak and she was sure that there were still things going on in his mind that he was not telling her and Ron. Harry always wanted to protect others from getting hurt and putting others in danger; he had shown that noble streak so many times since they’d met in first year. Hermione watched him closer trying to work out what was going on in Harry’s mind that he was hiding, yet all she could see was Harry isolating himself more. Harry even shifted uncomfortably and his face flushed when Ginny’s arm brushed his as she placed a jug of pumpkin juice on the table. A couple of months ago if Ginny had brushed his arm in the Gryffindor common room his face would have lit up in a smile yet now it seemed to be making him miserable. She guessed it just showed how much things had changed in such a short space of time. She continued to watch as Ginny’s and Harry’s eyes met for the briefest of seconds before Ginny chose to take a seat next to Fred, despite the spare seat next to Harry. Most of the time it looked like Harry and Ginny were reacting normally but if you watched them closely you could tell something wasn’t quite right, mostly through the looks that they were giving each other. The look of longing disappeared almost instantly as Ginny choose to laugh at one of Fred’s jokes as if nothing was going on. Hermione turned her attention back to Harry who appeared mesmerised by Ginny, watching her every move. Hermione recognised this behaviour from the last meals that she’d had with her parents. She had wanted to memorise every detail of her parents face so that when she closed her eyes at night and allowed herself to think of them, she could see them perfectly. She had watched their every movement, trying to remember all their different mannerisms and listened so carefully to the tones in their voices. She had not wanted to forget one little thing about them. “So, ‘ear,” Hermione inwardly groaned at yet another ear joke; the Weasley twins seemed to be fitting those jokes into every conversation they had, “I was, explaining how we came up with the idea for the extendables to this very curious, batty old woman,” Fred was grinning as he spoke, “and that’s when Georgie here came out of the backroom.” “I’ve never seen someone run so fast,” George continued the story, his grin was as big as his twin’s as he spoke, “I think she thought Fred had sealed one of mine in a box.” Ginny sniggered, her face lighting up for a fraction of a second, specks of amber sparkling with mischief in her brown eyes, “I’d loved to have seen that” Hermione turned her attention from Fred and George and their honorary twin back to Harry. It was like chalk and cheese looking at Harry and Ginny. While Ginny was still smiling and laughing, putting on an exceptional performance that nothing was wrong, Harry hadn’t smiled once since he had arrived at The Burrow. Harry had so much weighing on his shoulders and she knew from the way he was acting and the way he had acted in the past that he believed that every death being reported was his fault. Harry was clearly blaming himself for Mad-Eye’s death and George’s ear. Harry was blaming on himself for not facing Voldemort sooner. And just looking at how he looked at Ginny showed that all he really wanted was to forget other people’s problems and just be back in that relationship with Ginny. Watching the way Harry and Ginny had behaved at Hogwarts where they had spent every possible moment together, they practically glowed. It was hard to begrudge them that happiness especially seeing the furtive glances they gave each other now. And if proof was needed that Harry had fallen in love, it was there in the noble act he had taken in breaking up with Ginny which highlighted that growing love. Hermione had always looked at the facts. Harry had let relationship with Cho drift into nothingness yet Harry had taken forcible action to stop Ginny from getting involved in this war. She had known that Harry was noble for the first time when he insisted that she took the potion to go back and help Ron, while he went on to collect the Philosopher’s Stone, putting only himself in further danger. And since that moment five years ago, Harry had performed similar noble acts, many times. Like when he told Cedric about the dragons, the fatal night he had gone to help Sirius and just a few months ago when he had given them his Felix Felicis instead of taking it with him as he went with Dumbledore to collect the locket. And it was easy to see that Ginny felt the same way about Harry. When Ginny had been involved in relationships with both Dean and Michael it was easy to see things falling apart with the many arguments as proof. The reason for that was as she had confessed, that she was holding a torch for The-Boy-Who-Lived. Yet to Ginny, Harry was not just The-Boy-Who-Lived and to Harry, Ginny had become more than just Ron’s little sister. The rest of the evening continued in the same fashion. Ginny had stayed occupied with her twin brothers and only occasionally, when she thought no one was looking, glanced over at Harry before she disappeared up to her room at the earliest opportunity. This in itself was unusual for Ginny with so many Order members present and the possible discussions that might take. Hermione had seen Ginny put up a fight about being left out even as recently as five days ago. It was strange for her to announce that she was either tired or had homework to do as had happened in the last few days. Harry had sat isolating himself from all the conversations that were taking place, his thoughts obviously on other matters. He had occasionally looked up from the piece of parchment that he was reading to glance over at Ginny who had left the living room barely ten minutes before. When it had become obvious they were not going to talk about anything related to the Order of the Phoenix, Harry got to his own feet. When Harry had offered a nod to both Hermione and Ron and headed upstairs, the relief seemed to fill the room. Although both Harry and Ginny were trying to make light of the situation, it was painful to watch them. Tension had filled the air, as there were so many topics that could not be touched on that were now added to things that people did not want to talk about such as what had happened to Mad-Eye, meaning that even more time was spent talking about the wedding. Hermione finished watching Ron in his card game with Bill before heading up the stairs herself. She hoped that she had left a reasonable amount of time for Ginny to regain any composure she had lost when she had all but run up the stairs and given Harry plenty of time to have disappeared to be on his own. They both obviously wanted some time of their own and she was not going to begrudge them that. She paused after climbing the relativity short journey up the single flight of stairs that took her to Ginny’s room on the first floor of The Burrow. She held her hand on the door as she dare not move trying to detect if there was any noise inside. After a couple of very still few seconds Hermione pushed open the door to Ginny’s bedroom. She often felt guilty about the automatic assumption that Ginny would be giving up half of her bedroom, especially since they were leaving her out of their plans; she knew how much Ginny hated to be left out of things. She had made that painfully clear on a number of occasions in the past. Unlike two years ago when Ginny had waited to get her on her own and then bombarded her with questions on what was happening with the Order back at Grimmauld Place, Ginny had not yet asked once what the three of them were planning to do. Hermione looked around the small bright room not wanting to cross the threshold just yet. With Ginny’s trunk and the folded up bed pushed up against Ginny’s own bed there was very little room left which meant that once the door was closed there was no place for either of them to hide or any space for them to have just to themselves and their thoughts. Ginny was sitting right on the very edge of her window, her legs hanging just short of the large oak tree. She almost looked like she was going to jump onto it but she just sat staring out at the orchard that was placed behind The Burrow and watching as the sky slowly darkened and another day was lost in way. Hermione stood at the door for a few moments longer. She would have been worried if she hadn’t seen Ginny sitting on her window ledge at least two dozen times before. She admired the younger girl’s confidence. If she had been sitting there she was confident that she would have fallen. But then Ginny was much more of a risk taker than she was, not to mention that Ginny had always been much better with heights than she had, as shown by some of the moves that Ginny pulled off on the Quidditch pitch that she would have viewed as highly dangerous even if not performed fifty feet in the sky. After waiting for a good five minutes for Ginny to turn around she finally broke the silence. “Well, I think your mum is finally happy with the state of the silverware.” “That’s good,” Ginny spoke in a plain voice that gave nothing away in her emotions as she turned around, “but I’m sure she’ll find us another job tomorrow; there’s still a million and one things to do on that very long list of hers before the Delacours get here in the morning.” She swung her legs round and dropped from the window. Although Ginny had given the impression that nothing was wrong while she had been downstairs, her flushed cheeks told a very different story now. It was very clear that she had been crying. Ginny was only ever this quiet when she was hiding something. Hermione had only ever seen her like this in the summer when they had been staying in the Leaky Cauldron, just before they had gone back to Hogwarts after Ginny’s horrendous first year. That was the last time she had seen Ginny cry as well as she broke down and apologised for everything that had happened, finally admitting that she was scared and worried about what would happen now. Then Ginny had been barely twelve and had the ghost of Tom Riddle very much hanging over her. Now, Ginny was fifteen and she had Voldemort’s threat hanging over the safety of everyone she loved especially Harry who was about to go off and fight him. “Hermione,” she finally said. “Yes.” Ginny paused as she looked into Hermione eyes. The minutes the two of them looked at each other felt like hours instead of minutes. The key to understanding Ginny and the act she put on was to look into her eyes. While the younger girl could straighten her face, change the tone of her voice and add a bravado to her actions without much thought, her eyes always told a different story, showing every emotion that was going through her mind. An easy way to tell if Ginny was up to something was to see where her eyes were focused and so often when she focused her eyes on your forehead or nose, she was putting on a act. The trick was catching her doing this as she had her timing perfected. But today, Ginny was hiding nothing. She was willing to let her friend see what she was feeling by holding that gaze. There were tears shining against the brown and highlighting the flecks of amber in her eyes. “I know you’re up to something, especially since you’re planning not to go back to school.” She smiled softly, “I mean--you’re hardly taking a year off to read Mad Marvin comics and I’m starting to understand why you can’t tell me.” Ginny’s words stunned her into silence. Hermione had been expecting her to bring all this up. She hadn’t expected her tone to be so quiet, almost sounding defeated, or at the very least, accepting about what was going to happen. She had expected questions, she had expected to have Ginny wanting her to confirm her suspicions but she guessed that Ginny had already worked out a lot. They had spent so much time together after she and Harry had started dating and Ginny Weasley was many things, but not one of them was stupid. “Can you just make sure that he doesn’t do something brave and noble that gets him killed.” Ginny’s voice was shaking. “Promise me, you’ll bring him back.” “I can’t.” She knew how dangerous this was going to be, and she was not going to give anyone, not least Ginny, false hope. There was a very real possibility that they were not all going to survive this and although none of them wanted to admit it, Harry’s life was even more at risk than ever. She knew that deep down; Harry did; Ron did and she was positive that Ginny knew it as well. Ginny smiled, “Well then just this once, lie to me.” “We’ll do our best.” Ginny stifled a small laugh, “I guess that’s all I can hope for,” she paused as she lifted a pillow, “lets call it a night, I’m sure that Mum will have us polishing the chicken’s beaks tomorrow.” “It’s always a possibility,” Hermione waved her wand and the small folded up camp bed filled the room. Lying in bed half an hour later, she couldn’t help but look over at Ginny’s still form, positive the younger girl was now asleep. At least with the lights off or maybe just having the door shut meant Ginny’s act could stop. She had known that Ginny was a good actress, she had watched her friend putting on an act around Harry for years, but the way she was hiding her pain and worries so Harry wouldn’t suffer any more was remarkable. Maybe Harry was not the only noble one in that relationship.
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