The sand underneath Harry’s toes was extremely warm as he lay on the beach, baking under the sun.” They definitely don’t have sun like this at home,” Ron said, wiping the sweat of his forehead.
“Your right, about that one, Ronald,” Hermione replied. “Now, you two need to put on more sunscreen on.”
“Again?” Ron exclaimed annoyed.
“Yes, again,” Hermione said as she walked over to Ron and started to apply sunscreen. Harry picked up the sunscreen and pushed down on the cap. In that moment a loud crack came from behind.
“What was that?” Harry asked turning around in a second. His heart leaped when his eyes landed where the sound had come from. There, standing right in front of them with many bags, was a beautiful redheaded girl. Harry jumped up and went flying over Ginny.
Her eyes twinkled merrily as his arms quickly circled her body. Harry avidly leaned forward for a kiss and Ginny didn’t make him beg; she was soon kissing him back. Unfortunately for them, Ron’s sharp voice boomed in their ears.
“What are you doing here so early?” The moment was violently lost.
“Neville decided to surprise Luna and take her on a vacation to the secret mountains in Germany where the Snoggelporsh supposedly lives,” Ginny replied peeved. “She wants to write an article about it for the Quibbler.”
“Now that’s a very unique place for you to take your girlfriend,” Hermione joked.
“Yeah, but it just meant that I was free to come early,” Ginny said. “Wait… Did Mum send me here in the wide open view?”
Hermione looked around at the beach, which was deserted beside them. “No, it looks clear,” she said.
“What does it matter anyway? This town is full of magic,” Harry retorted. “They wouldn’t notice if someone just popped in after what we saw last night.”
Ron agreed with a chuckle.
“What do you mean?” Ginny asked, laying down her suitcase and sitting on Harry’s lap.
“Well, last night we saw a ritual of some sort being performed. It was at what is called The Stone Circle. It is where, in olden days, druids would perform magic,” Hermione explained, “And last night it was put to use again.”
“There were people trying to call on something. They summoned a green light around the circle into the sky. That’s when we noticed it from the house and ran out to see.” Ron explained.
“And my scar hurt,” Harry added.
“What? Your scar?” Ginny demanded, jumping off his lap, “Are you okay? Is it him?”
“Yes, and we don’t know yet; we haven’t had time talk about it,” Harry replied.
“And we aren’t going to talk about it. It is not our problem,” Hermione stated angrily.
“But-” Ron started.
“But nothing! We are not getting back into this chasing evil crusade. We are done,” Hermione shouted. “It’s now the Orders and Ministry’s problem to chase dark wizards. I am done! We are done!”
“We aren’t done, Hermione,” Harry contradicted. “If it is Voldemort or Death Eaters, we can’t just sit back and do nothing!”
“Why would you want to get back into this?” Hermione questioned exasperatedly as while her eyes started to fill with tears. “Why would we go looking for more people to get killed? We have lost so many people already: Dumbledore, Sirius, Lockhart, Percy and Krum. We have had more than our fair share in the war!”
Ron clasped his arms around her. “Hermione in every battle there will be people who give up their lives for the greater cause, so, if we let these people get away with what they are doing, all those deaths will be for no reason. I lost a brother, Hermione, yet I know that fight is not over,” Ron said as he looked in her eyes. When as she looked deeply into his eyes, Hermione slowly understood what he was saying. The fire burning in his eyes also reminded her why she loved him.
“Ok, so now we are all in agreement we need to figure out what is going on,” Harry said happily after seeing Hermione relented to Ron’s words. Hermione pursed her lips in a very McGonagall way but said nothing.
“Where do we start?” Ginny asked.
“We start by going back to the house and putting your bags there,” Harry said putting his arm around Ginny’s shoulder and picking up one of her bags. They packed everything in less than ten minutes and eagerly started their way down to the field that would lead them up to Hermione’s aunt and uncle’s house.
“What are we going to tell them?” Ron asked wonderingly.
“Umm… Well, we can just say that she ended up catching an early flight. And that when we were walking back she passed us in a cab,” Hermione replied. “They knew she was coming, but they didn’t think that before Wednesday.”
“That works for me!” Ginny said mirthfully.
Half and hour later, they were all piled into the boy’s room, looking out the window at where the green light had come from the night before.
“How are we going to figure this one out?” Hermione asked worriedly more to herself than the others. “We have none of the things we had when we were at Hogwarts. No books, no teachers, no Order, and no Professor Dumbledore. What are we going to do?”
“Hermione, I admit that I don’t know, but I do know we can handle this,” Harry said reassuringly.
“Why don’t we start by the most obvious thing to do?” asked Ron. “Let’s go down to the circle and see if there is anything we can find out. Maybe there are some clues we can pick up to find out who is behind all of this.
“That’s a very good idea, Ron,” Hermione praised, addressing Ron with a smile that left him with a goofy look on his face.
“That’s where we were hiding last night.” Hermione pointed at a rock. The smell of the fresh grass outside invaded them as they routed back through the path they had taken last night. They could do it more calmly now that they weren’t running for their lives.
“Who’s that?” Ron asked just noticing the guy standing at one of the stones.
“Who cares?” Harry said still walking towards the circle but hesitating slightly.
“It looks as if he’s standing guard,” Ginny contributed. She cast a glance towards Harry warning him. However, Harry kept on walking and the rest of them just followed.
“Who are you?” the man shouted as soon as he spotted them.
“We are tourists,” Hermione shouted back cautiously.
“Well, get out of here. This is not a place for you,” the man replied now grumpier.
“We just wanted to see the great architecture,” Hermione replied. The man started to make his way towards them.
“Is there a problem, sir?” Ginny asked in what she hoped to be a sweet voice.
“Yeah… It’s you!” the man yelled.