Chapter 26

Hermione finished packing with a satisfied flick of her wand, and shut the suitcase with a loud zip. It had been weeks since they had defeated Voldemort, and Draco had been brought back from the dead. Ravenclaw had won the House cup, and Gryffindor the Quidditch cup. It seemed that everything was finally settling down, but she knew that the summer would be anything but peaceful.

"Ready to go, Hermione?" Ron asked as they finished their breakfast. Hermione placed her silver on her napkin, and downed her orange juice.

"Of course," she said with a smile.

"What are you doing this summer?" Harry asked as he finished his bacon. "Are you going somewhere with your parents?"
"Nope," she said, grinning to herself. "Won't tell you quite yet. You'll find out soon enough."

"The summer is going to pass so slowly," Harry said grumpily. "I don't think I can wait until my birthday!"

"You'll have to," Hermione said sympathetically. "Sorry, I'd help you if I could."

"I know you would," Harry said sadly. "But I'll just have to stick it out with those stupid Dursleys."

"I guess so," Ron said, just as grumpily. "You'd better write. Or there'll be hell to pay."

"Hell to pay?" Harry said, raising his eyebrow.

"Hell," Hermione said strictly, "Hell is nothing to be spoken of lightly. You should know this, Ron."

Ron blushed furiously and then grinned, his cheeks flame red.

The train rumbled away from the Hogwarts platform, and Hermione stared up at the castle that had become her second home.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, placing his cold hand on her arm. She nearly jumped, startled by his movements.

"Nothing," she said tiredly. "It's just that so much has happened over the last month, I feel as if everything's come to an end."

"Come to an end?" Ron asked sarcastically. "We wish. Sirius is back, Voldemort is quasi-dead, and I have a head ache."

"What's the worst?" Harry asked jokingly.

"The fact that I have a migraine," Ron laughed.

The summer sun fell upon the train, and it seemed as if the entire countryside was singing. Hedwig was clearly itching to flap off into the sun with the other birds, and was hooting plaintively at them as they played chess.

"Come on, stomp on the bloody pawn," Ron was howling angrily as Hermione's pawn soundly trumped his. Hermione smiled smugly, and Ron growled irritably.

"Teaches you for trying to cheat, Ron," Hermione said, laughing. "Don't get all sullen on me, I wasn't the one who was trying to slip my opponent's queen a Knut!"

Ron continued to growl, and Harry released Hedwig into the afternoon air. He watched her fly off into the blue sky, hoping that she remembered to return when they reached King's Cross Station.

King's Cross Station loomed in the distance, and Hermione quickly pulled her trunk from under the bench.

The unloaded their belongings, and as they did, Hedwig flew up and returned to her cage, holding a lizard in her beak proudly. She offered to Harry, who tried as politely as possible to dissuade her from giving the rather grisly gift.

Alastor and the other members of the Order were standing on the platform, watching Harry, Ron, and Hermione with a look that could be described as pride.

"'Ello Harry!" Tonks said cheerfully. "We heard about your escapades with You-Know-Who in an infirmary of all places! Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Harry said with a slight smile.

"Don't be congratulating him yet," Moody said grumpily. "Voldemort's not dead yet. He's got a lot to go through before then, and you know it Tonks."

"Ah, put a cork in it Moody," Tonks said without missing a beat, even Moody's dire warning was unable to dent her good attitude. "Harry, you've survived him another year. Good job, keep up the great work! You two as well," she said, addressing Harry's silent friends.

"Good job, Hermione, Ron," Kingsley said, his deep voice shaking Hermione's bones. "You two have shown yourselves to be worthy witches and wizards, and true friends."

"Thanks," Ron said, puffing up slightly.

"Now," Moody said, turning to Harry. "You need to go with those muggles, you know the one's."

"Yeah," Harry said, his displeasure apparent on his face.

"You can give the old gits the same warning I gave last year," Moody said with a slight yawn. "You answer our owls, or we'll be down on you like Beaters to a Bludger."

Harry nodded with a grin, and started walking to the Dursleys, who were standing by a pillar, watching Harry with a mixture of fear and distaste. Mr. Dursley clearly recognized Moody, because his face had turned a rather ugly shade of plum, which reminded Hermione of her father's dog's barf.

"You two keep in touch with Harry, all right?" Tonks said, eyeing Harry's aunt and uncle with wary distrust. "You know his last summer stunk bloody hell?"

"Yeah, he told us," Ron said, sounding rather lonely.

"Well, we'll see you two at the end of July," Kingsley said, as they all turned away.

"Wait," Hermione interrupted. "Do you think you could tell Sirius we said hello, and that we love him?"

Kingsley nodded, and smiled, and the three of them Disapparated with a crack.

"Well," Ron said tiredly. "I guess I'll see you around July, then. My parents'll be here any moment to get me. I'm going to go find Ginny, and then head out. See you later."

Hermione waved, and he walked away toward a mess of redheads on the far end of the platform.

Gradually, the platform emptied, and Hermione was the only person remaining. She stood in a golden pool of light, while the Hogwarts Express released steam into the already hot summer air.

Finally, she saw him coming, walking across the platform, looking at the ground, and toting a trunk. His blond hair caught the sunlight, and he looked up.

She was caught in the swirling blue of his heavenly eyes, and she sighed in absolute bliss.

"Hello," she said as he approached. "How was your trip?"

"Fine," he replied, setting his trunk on the ground. "And yours?"

She shrugged. "It's always hard to say good-bye to Harry, and send him off to stay with his horrid muggle relatives. I feel guilty about sending him into a nest of vipers."

"They really that bad?"

"Yeah," she said, holding her elbow.

He rubbed the back of his neck, and she found that she was twirling her ring self-consciously. It was like they didn't know each other, even after they had saved each other's lives numerous times. But, Hermione realized, that they really didn't know each other very well, they knew vague things about each other's lives, but in reality, they were strangers. But that was what the summer was for.

"Ready to go?" he asked, smiling at her.

"Of course," she replied. He leaned down and kissed her on the lips, and it seemed as if time stopped.

When he pulled away, she slid her arm into the crook of his elbow, and they set off into the setting London sun, to whatever, they didn't know what, but they knew they would be together.

The End

A/N: Okay, that's the end of Disfigurement. Sorry to end with such a non-descript boring ending, but I felt that perhaps they'd been seeing too much action lately, and they needed something to just reflect on what had happened to them.

The sequel is called Prophecy, and it's just been started.

Please review the last chapter, and if you're still interested, look for the sequel in the next couple days!

Thanks to all my faithful readers, you guys rock my world.

XOXO
anglachel