“Dead?” Hermione asked. She felt tears fill her eyes.
“Y-yes, this is t-the l-letter,” Mrs. Weasley choked out.
“No!” Ginny shrieked. A second later she was sitting on the floor, bawling. The only boy she had ever loved was gone forever, and she couldn’t even protect him by speaking up about what had really happened.
Hermione hugged Mrs. Weasley soothingly, thinking that it wouldn’t do much good anyway. They had lost Harry, and none of them could think of a worse fate.
“I don’t believe it…” Ron said, sinking into a chair and hiding his face in his hands.
“They said t-that the h-healer tried to save him, but she c-couldn’t!” Mrs. Weasley wailed.
“Mum, sit down,” Fred said, pulling out a chair dazedly.
Mrs. Weasley sobbed loudly and collapsed into the chair.
“How could this happen?” George asked.
“I have no idea how. He was in good condition when we left, and I just…don’t believe any of this,” Mr. Weasley said.
An owl swooped into the kitchen. Mr. Weasley reached for the parchment attached to the owl’s beak. He had a disbelieving expression on his face.
“It is an urgent letter from the Ministry. I am so sorry, everybody, but I have to go take care of this,” Mr. Weasley said cautiously. He wished he could tell them all the news contained in the letter, but he wasn’t allowed to do such, so he didn’t.
“What is it, dad?” Ginny choked through her tears.
“I’m not supposed to talk about it. I will be back later.” Mr. Weasley abruptly left them all standing in the kitchen feeling hurt, confused, and generally lost.
An hour later, the whole room was silent. Well, it was until Ginny spoke up.
“Are they intending to have a funeral for him?” she had asked.
”Oh dear, they didn’t mention such a thing,” Mrs. Weasley wailed depressingly.
Ron jumped out of his seat.
“WHAT? So what do they intend to do with my BEST FRIEND’S body? Throw it away? That is rubbish!” Ron’s face was bright red.
“Ron! It’s okay, they will probably send something telling us what we need to do,” Hermione said, tears still blinding her.
“The last thing I said to him while he was conscious was ‘hurry up in there, before I drag you out, because some of us haven’t used the bathroom yet,’ and that night, he stormed out!” he said, wiping tears from his eyes.
“Ron…”
“I should have talked to him more; maybe he wouldn’t have felt so ignored if I had…”
“Ron, you couldn’t help it any more than I could,” Ginny said, thinking to herself that it really was her fault that he had died.
“I could have done something. It really irritates me that I didn’t…”
“Ron, I am serious. No matter what, sooner or later he would have left on his own. Just remember who found him unconscious and dragged him to safety , when he could have died sooner if I hadn’t seen him.”
“Ginny, I am sorry. I just…didn’t know,” Ron said quietly. Everybody was silent for what seemed like hours, or as silent as many people crying over Harry’s death could possibly be.
“I already miss him,” Hermione said through tears.
“I feel like I’m the one to blame,” Ginny said, considering telling the family the truth about what happened with Harry.
“You didn’t kill him, I mean, he wasn’t killed. He just…died,” Ron said, beginning to wonder if somebody indeed had killed his best friend.
Everybody stared at Ron awkwardly.
“Ron, that was a horrible thing to say about your best friend!” Ginny said. Her eyes were red and very puffy.
“I didn’t mean it that…”
“It was my fault!” Hermione said, interrupting Ron.
Nobody said anything. Hermione looked at Ron helplessly.
“Hermione…what are you talking about?”
“Ginny, Harry knew about Viktor. I had told him the night he arrived here. It was my fault that he didn’t want to talk to me.”
“Wait a minute…what about Viktor?” Ron asked.
“I tried to deny it when Ginny confronted me, but I can’t avoid it forever…”
“Hermione, tell us…” Ron said in a somewhat consoling voice.
“I helped Viktor with the Triwizard Tournament. I don’t know why I did it. He was just the only one I could really talk to that year. You and Harry were fighting half of the year, so I helped him with the Tournament. I helped Viktor when Harry hoped for my support. And I am really sorry I did it.”
There was a depressingly long silence. Then Ron sighed.
“Well, how does it feel now that you can’t take it all back?” Ron asked Hermione.
“I feel horrible.”
“You should,” Ron said, storming out of the kitchen. Hermione stared at the floor ominously.
“How could you?” Mrs. Weasley asked.
“I don’t know…I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to!” she said. Tears streamed down Hermione’s pink face.
“You’re honestly sorry? This is a horrible timing for all of this to come out, so maybe you blame yourself,” Mrs. Weasley said.
“I’m sorry I did it all! And the worse part about it is that being sorry won’t bring Harry back!” Hermione said. She glared at Mrs. Weasley for a moment and ran to the room she had been sharing with Ginny that past summer. She tossed herself onto her bed and cried into her pillow.
Meanwhile, down in the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley was snatching a piece of parchment attached to an owl. Her eyes widened as she read it.
“What is it, mum?” Ginny asked.
“Not possible…” Mrs. Weasley gasped with a burst of joy.
“What isn’t possible?” Fred asked.
“It is a letter from your father. It says that someone tried to kill Harry, but got caught. It says that Harry is alive.”
Ginny stared at her mother with disbelief.
“Is he still unconscious?” George asked.
“Yes. His condition is worse, but he is still alive, and that is what matters. All we can hope for now is that he can wake up.”
“I’m telling Ron and Hermione,” Ginny said.
“No need. I can call them down. RON! HERMIONE! PLEASE COME DOWN HERE! WE HAVE SOME…NEWS!” Fred yelled.
Minutes later, Ron and Hermione came down They both looked like a mess, but they didn’t seem to care.
“What?” Ron asked bitterly.
“It’s Harry…it says that he is alive!”
“What?” Ron asked.
“Yes,” Mrs. Weasley said with tears of joy.
“Unbelievable!” Hermione squealed. She was so happy that nobody could even begin to describe how life suddenly got easier.
“Is he awake?” Ron asked.
“Unfortunately, he isn’t. And his condition has worsened. I don’t know if we can go now, just because of the time, but we can wait there in the morning and catch some sleep there..”
Everybody agreed and decided to get some things.
“Ginny, are you still mad about me helping Viktor?” Hermione asked.
“Of course I am, I didn’t expect for you to do that,” Ginny said.
“Being angry won’t help, you know,” Hermione said.
“Well, being calm means that I have let go of Harry, and that I am ready to move on. I’m not. You know that I can’t…”
“Well neither can I with Ron, but you don’t have to move on. You should just forgive me.”
“Why should I?” Ginny asked, grabbing a bag for her things..
“Because I’m sorry that I did it. But, we have to go and see Harry now, so if he wakes up and you’re in this mood, I won’t cover for you.”
--
The next morning they all woke up early and eagerly got ready to see Harry. Ginny was not speaking to Hermione, and Hermione was longing to get Ginny to forgive her.
“Okay, some of us should go up to his room now,” Mrs. Weasley said.
“Okay,” George sighed. His hair was as messy as Harry’s usually was. No, it was actually worse. Fred grinned evilly at George, as his hair was not messy at all.
“What happened to your hair?” Ron asked.
“Little brother, you don’t want to know,” Fred said, patting Ron on the shoulder.
“We have to go, now,” Ginny groaned childishly. She was desperate to see Harry.
“Okay, then you lot can go first. Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Of course we are!”
“Fine, just don’t spend all day in there, since some of us also would love to see Harry,” Mrs. Weasley ordered.
Ginny, Ron, and Hermione agreed and went to see Harry. When they went into the room, a girl with black hair jumped up.
“Cho?” Ginny asked.
“Oh, sorry. No one was here. I’ll just…go,” Cho said, standing up. There were tears rolling down her face.
“It’s okay. You can stay,” Ron said.
“No, really. I have to do something,” Cho said, wiping the tears off. She walked out of the room and the other three looked at each other with skeptical expressions on their faces.
“What was that about?” Ron asked.
“No idea,” Hermione said.
“What are you willing to bet she still likes him?” Ginny asked.
Hermione and Ron didn’t answer. They weren’t sure, to be honest.
“Ginny, I doubt she still has feelings for him. She’s probably concerned,” Hermione said after a while.
“Or maybe she isn’t, it could be guilt,” Ginny sighed, glaring over at Hermione.
“Ginny…” Ron whispered warningly.
“Well, that’s why Hermione told Harry this summer. She felt guilty, and maybe that is why he was mad at the whole world, because someone who he thought was his friend betrayed his trust. You can’t make up for it, Hermione. No matter how hard you try, it will be with you wherever you go,” Ginny said, standing up.
“Ginny, don’t walk out. That’s happened enough this past week,” Hermione said.
“Then you should be pretty used to it,” Ginny said, walking out.
“I’ll go get her,” Hermione said to Ron.
“Okay. See you later, then,” Ron replied. He watched Hermione walk out of the room and he wondered if he had been wrong.
Harry, Come Back by inhphtml
Chapter Notes: OK...I hope I have the formatting right this time...if not, grr...a shock will come to those who thought that ********** was ************ and that ************** was like, so *****************. Hope that didn't spoil much...