To Love and Live by LilaBear
Chapter Notes: Here's chapter 5! Please review, I'll respond to any questions ;)
Fifteen minutes later, Molly and Remus finally found Harry and Ginny, curled up in the corner beside the window, asleep. Upon seeing their tear-streaked faces, Molly brought a hand to her mouth and stifled a sob. Remus placed a comforting hand on her shoulder before conjuring a blanket and placing it over the two.
“We’ll leave them for now,” he whispered. “I think everyone needs all the sleep they can get.”
~*~
Harry felt a hand shake him awake. He rubbed his eyes and looked blearily at the young woman hovering above him.
“Tonks?”
Tonks smiled softly. “Wotcher, Harry. Morning. Looks like you slept well.”
Harry rolled his head to crack his neck, ignoring the look on Tonks’s face.
“I did,” he agreed, sitting up a little more. “I think my neck may remind me all day, though.” Harry wiggled to extricate himself from Ginny’s arms, then slipped one arm behind her back and the other under her knees and stood up, Ginny in his arms. “Do I smell coffee?”
Tonks grinned. “Coffee, bagels and pumpkin juice. There’s a bit of a mini-breakfast party happening in Bill’s room. He woke up an hour ago.”
Harry sighed in relief, a smile stretching across his face. That was just the news they needed after the night before.
“I wonder if I should wake her up, then,” he said, nodding towards Ginny’s sleeping face leaning against his shoulder. Tonks stopped in front of Bill’s door and winked at Harry, before slipping into the room without answering him. Harry sat down on a chair in the hall, savouring the moment of having Ginny calmly curled up in his arms. He kissed the top of her head before gently shaking her shoulder and murmuring into her ear.
“Wake up, Ginny.”
Ginny stirred and looked at Harry in confusion. He smiled and chuckled at her weary face.
“Sleep well?”
Ginny frowned. “I think so,” she answered. Harry kissed her forehead.
“Bill woke up,” Harry said. “Breakfast is on in his room.”
Ginny closed her eyes as a relieved smile found its way onto her face. She wrapped her arms around Harry briefly in a tight hug before jumping off his lap and giggling, “Race you inside,” with a wink. Before Harry could move Ginny had spun around and pushed open Bill’s door, disappearing behind it. Harry smiled to himself before following her.
~*~
An hour later Harry and Ron sat alone with Bill in his room.
“How is everyone doing?” Bill asked. “The last thing I remember is seeing Marietta dead on the ground behind me.”
Harry sighed in relief upon hearing Bill didn’t remember the excruciating pain he’d been in. It was a memory better off forgotten.
“Most people are pretty ok,” Ron said. “Mum and Ginny were a bit of a mess when they heard about you guys… and about Charlie… but I think Ginny has calmed down and cheered up a bit,” he added, hazarding a glance at Harry, before continuing. “Everyone is conscious except Luna and Shacklebolt.”
Suddenly a shriek was heard from outside and Harry and Ron could hear a commotion of voices.
“My ‘usband, my Bill, where eez my Bill?”
Ron suppressed a laugh and glanced at Bill before turning to Harry. “I think we’re about to be kicked out, mate.”
Fleur burst through the door in a show of melodrama and flew at the bed, throwing herself at Bill and covering his face in kisses. Bill managed to disentangle himself long enough to give Ron a one-armed hug and shake Harry’s hand. Ron and Harry collapsed out the door, laughing openly for the first time in over twelve hours. The two of them leant against the wall and slid to the ground, sighing as the laughs subsided, still with grins spread across their faces.
“I’m glad she’s around,” Ron said after a moment. Harry looked at him like he had gone crazy. Ron looked back at him. “What? Who else could send us into a fit of laughter like that, not twelve hours after the Final Battle?”
Harry smirked and stood back up.
“I think your Dad made some comment about going back to the Burrow,” he said, giving Ron a hand back to his feet. Ron nodded in agreement.
“Mmmmm, my bed… I like that idea.”
~*~
Harry sat in the kitchen at the Burrow, a cup of tea in his hands. Ginny and Hermione sat on the opposite side of the table from him and Ron sat beside him. All four were still trying to wake up, two days after the final battle.
“Morning, Sunshine!” Fred hollered, bounding down the stairs, paying no attention to the recently healed wrist he was supposed to be resting. He was met with four glares. “What?”
Ginny looked back into her cup of coffee. “You haven’t spoken to Mum this morning, have you.” It was more of a statement than a question. Fred shook his head.
“Charlie’s funeral is in two days,” Hermione informed him. Fred paled slightly at the painful reminder. Mrs Weasley came bustling into the kitchen, hardly noticing Fred.
“Ron, dear, you need to change the dressing on your leg,” she said. Ron looked down at his left leg that had sustained many small but deep cuts from a long-distance sectumsempra curse.
“But you only put a new dressing on it before I went to bed!”
Mrs Weasley looked at him. “Yes, and it needs changing twice a day! Once in the morning and once before you go to bed. Hermione or Ginny can do it for you if you’d rather.”
Ron shot a dirty look at Ginny who was grinning wickedly at the idea of changing Ron’s dressing, presumably making it as uncomfortable for him as possible. Ron turned to face Hermione, a weak expression on his face.
“Hermione?”
A look of what Harry thought to be sympathy crossed Hermione’s face before she smiled and stood up to clear dishes off the table.
“If you can get the stuff for me, I’ll come up to your bedroom and change it for you.”
A look of relief washed across Ron’s face before he stood up from his seat and headed towards the stairs. Ginny looked at Hermione and raised her eyebrow.
“What?” Hermione hissed, trying to avoid Mrs Weasley’s ears as she cleaned the dishes on the other side of the room.
“What?” Ginny mocked, raising both eyebrows this time. “I do believe you looked almost sympathetic then, Hermione.”
A blush flitted across Hermione’s cheeks before she regained her composure.
“Your brother is one of my best friends, Ginny. Those cuts can’t be tickling him. I imagine he’s in more pain than he lets on.”
Ginny’s face softened. She had just been teasing Hermione, but now she sensed there was real concern in Hermione’s voice.
“You’re really concerned about him, aren’t you?” she asked gently. Hermione looked at her, putting on a confused appearance.
“Of course I am, Ginny. Like I said, he’s one of my best friends.”
Ginny groaned inwardly in exasperation. Was Hermione really that thick, or was she just avoiding the point? Ginny poked her head out of the kitchen and noted that George and Fred were playing a game of wizard chess in the living room. She turned back to Hermione.
“Hermione, my room. Now.”
Hermione shook her head.
“I have to change Ron’s dressings, remember?”
Ginny groaned to herself again, before considering the fact this would give her an opportunity to observe.
“Well, hurry up then!”
~*~
Ten minutes later Ginny found herself sitting on Harry’s bed with him watching Hermione change Ron’s dressings while he lay on his bed. Hermione pulled a bandage off one particularly painful-looking cut and Ginny felt Harry flinch beside her. Ron saw Hermione reach for a bottle of purple lotion out of the corner of his eye and he groaned.
“Oh Merlin no, not that stuff… Hermione, please?”
“Ron, if I don’t do this properly, you can rest assured your mother won’t let me change your dressings again, and it will be either her or Ginny doing it.”
Ron scrunched his eyes up and stuffed his face into his pillow, unsuccessfully trying to bite back a yelp when Hermione applied the cream. Five minutes later she’d finished the last of the cuts and was wrapping a bandage around his lower leg to keep the dressings of all eight cuts in position. Ron groaned as he rolled over onto his back.
“How about a game of chess?” Harry suggested. Ron perked up slightly.
“Yeah, ok.”
Ginny took the opportunity to stand and head for the door.
“Well, Hermione and I will leave you two to your game, won’t we Hermione?” Ginny said pointedly, staring at Hermione. Hermione looked at her with a surprise. Ginny had caught her staring at Ron as he maneuvered himself out of his bed and onto the floor to pull his chess set out from under the bed.
“Um, yes, I mean- have fun, boys,” Hermione stuttered, jumping up from her position on the bed and just about pushing Ginny out the door.
Ginny pulled Hermione into the room they shared and plonked her down on her bed.
“You are so busted,” Ginny said gleefully. Hermione’s face was ablaze and she covered it with her hands.
“What’s happened to me, Ginny?”
Ginny had to stop her jaw from dropping.
“You’re nineteen, Hermione! You’re allowed to feel this way about a boy!”
“Yes, but that particular boy? Ron? The person I refused to speak to in third- and fourth! “ AND SIXTH! - year? The one who made constant comments about Viktor? The one whose mother sent him a Howler for taking a charmed car? The one who couldn’t be more different to me if he tried?”
Ginny looked at Hermione, slightly awe-struck.
“The one who helped save you from a troll in your first year? The one who battled along side you in the Department of Mysteries? The one who sacrificed himself for you and Harry in a game of giant chess? The one who helped you get Dumbledore’s Army up and running? The one who muttered your name while unconscious in the hospital wing? The one who took on his greatest fear, giant spiders, in order to have you un-petrified?”
Hermione looked back at Ginny, a similar look of awe across her face.
“He did, didn’t he?”
Ginny rolled her eyes.
“Hermione, how long have you felt this way about my brother?”
Hermione just shook her head.
“I don’t know. One day, I just… realised. And tried to ignore it.” Suddenly a new wave of panic hit Hermione. “What if he doesn’t feel the same way?”
Ginny rolled her eyes and groaned. “Oh, trust me, you don’t need to worry about that.”
Hermione bit her lip. “You can’t just learn this stuff from books, can you?”
Ginny bit back a giggle. “Hermione… you don’t have to learn anything. You and Ron know each other too well already to have to try and impress each other.”
Hermione flopped back onto her bed with a groan. “I don’t know what to do, Ginny.”
Ginny laughed. “You don’t have to do anything, Hermione. He’s the one who has to get his act together.”
Hermione paused for a moment before speaking again. “I guess I’ll have to wait a while. Not that I mind,” she added in a rush, “just that things are going to be a bit… tricky around here for a while. Especially with Charlie’s funeral… “
She drifted off, realising Ginny too was one of Charlie’s siblings. Ginny nodded. It was only two days since Charlie had died, and the wound was still fresh, raw and just as painful, but she’d used up all her tears the first night she’d found out about it.
“I’m glad he didn’t marry,” Ginny said. Hermione nodded.
“I know what you mean. If it were Bill he would have left behind a pregnant wife. Charlie left behind a family… but not a family that was dependent upon him, if you get my meaning… I hope that didn’t sound really insensitive,” Hermione added quietly.
Ginny smiled slightly. “I know what you mean.”