FicWad

Chapter 2

Hermione pushed the framed picture away from her as though burned; the memories hurt too much, memories of happier times. Hesitantly she reached into the box once again almost afraid as to what she would find. She pulled out a long, thin package carefully wrapped in white cloth; unraveling it slowly she pulled out a dried red rose. Stifling a sob, she recognized the rose; it was from the bouquet of roses Harry had given her their first official date.

Hermione glanced at the clock above the mantelpiece, her eyes widened, she was terribly late, which was completely her fault, she had left the Ministry half an hour after she intended. Dashing into the bathroom she had just jumped into the shower when she heard Harry’s voice, “Hermione? Are you here?”

“Yeah, Harry, make yourself comfortable, I’ll be done in a bit,” she yelled back.
Cursing to herself she turned off the water and waved her wand continuously to dry, straighten and ran a brush quickly through her hair. Running out to her bedroom she quickly put on the black dress she had bought in anticipation of tonight. Putting on mascara, eye shadow, lip-gloss and a little puff of perfume she raced out to the living room, but there was no one there.

“Harry?” she queried at the seemingly empty flat. Sighing she sat down on the couch, he had disappeared.

“Hermione,” said a voice from behind her.

Turning around she was presented with a view of Harry holding a dozen red roses, “I didn’t know if I should bring it, but I wanted to show you how much I--- ” he began to say.
Hermione reached over and put a single finger across his lips to stop him from rambling,

“Red roses are my favorite and these are lovely,” she said.

Harry smiled, “I remember, I saw them and had to get them for you.”

She reached up and pulled his face down to hers and gave him a soft kiss that was at once tender and sweet. Breaking apart the two smiled, the nervous tension gone. This was their friendship and their relationship.

How could 7 plus years of friendship and 3 years of intimacy be reduced to the remnants left in a box? Hermione carefully put the rose back into the box, she couldn’t look through the shards of hers and Harry’s past anymore. Glancing over at the mantelpiece she saw it was almost time to go convene for their meeting as it was.

Walking to her bedroom she rifled through it and chose a white top with low-slung jeans, grabbing her shoes she gave herself a once over in the hallway mirror before apparating out. A slight pop was all that was left of her presence.

As she reached the apparition point outside number twelve, she hesitated once before striding in through the front door. She was always struck by how different the house was now than the summer they all spent here in their fifth year of school. The gray, drab walls were replaced with bright, cheerful colors. All the dark artifacts and creatures were gone courtesy of Gringotts cursebreakers and a hefty fee. Most importantly, the screaming portrait of Sirius’ mother - the bane of everyone’s existence, was now gone from the house.
Walking into the dining room where the later Order of the Phoenix meetings took place, she found almost everyone had arrived and were waiting on a couple of stragglers, namely herself and the twins.

“Hello, Hermione. Any idea why we’re here? Ron wouldn’t say anything about why, just that we’ll find out at the meeting,” asked Remus.

She shook her head, “Remus, we’ll tell everyone once everyone gets here,” she smiled at him reassuringly.

Motioning to Ron, she asked, “How are we going to tell everyone?”

“I’m thinking it’ll just be easier to tell everyone outright and not pussy around the fact that—” he stopped himself, noting that the twins had finally arrived.

Ron waved for the twins to sit, who had uncommonly serious and troubled faces on as they sat in the back waiting for the meeting to get started. There seemed to be a whispered conversation going on, which everyone put down to typical twin behavior.

“Excuse me, can I get everyone’s attention?” said Ron loudly.

Everyone turned towards Ron.

“I would just like to inform everyone that Harry has disappeared. If he has said anything to any of you we would appreciate the information as to his whereabouts. We, meaning Hermione and I, are very worried about him,” said Ron.

To everyone’s surprise, Moody laughed, “Potter finally got up the balls to leave huh?”

Ron turned to him, “What are you talking about Mad-Eye?”

“If you have no idea why Potter left, I think you should think back to what you, Granger and the rest of your family have been doing to him since the news came out,” he said.

“Moody, what are you talking about? The Weasleys have always treated Harry as part of the family,” said Molly Weasley self-righteously.

“Family? Do you always treat family by raising a ruckus every single time you saw him out in public that always requires Auror attention? How about speaking to those thrice-damned reporters from every single publication about what a terrible person he was, and how he betrayed your and your family’s trust?” asked Moody.

“I…well he embarrassed Hermione in front of everyone,” she said triumphantly.

Moody laughed, a harsh sound, “So you wanted to air your family’s dirty laundry out in public and make Potter a complete laughingstock of the entire Wizarding World?”

“Moody, that’s besides the point right now. We need to figure out where Harry went,” said Albus.

“But I know exactly where he went, and you all should know if you profess to be his friends and family. Though based on how you’ve all treated him as of late, I’m surprised that he didn’t leave earlier,” said Moody.

Every eye turned to him, “If you knew where Harry was, why didn’t you say something earlier?” questioned Arthur. “Is he okay?”

“He’s perfectly fine, he applied for a transfer for the Head of Magical Law Enforcement in New York, an old buddy of mine was retiring and Potter applied for the position. As if there would be any doubt he would get it. He got accepted and turned in his two weeks’ notice, got his affairs in order here and left,” said Moody.

“Why didn’t he say goodbye to anyone, not even Remus – the closest thing he has to family?” asked Ginny.

“I can answer that, Harry came over about a week ago to tell me he was leaving. I assumed he told everyone else, though he did seem rather upset about something. I hadn’t realized that you all made this feud with him public. Though that would explain why he said he felt everyone here would be better off without him,” said Remus.

With every single word Remus said condemned her, Harry hadn’t said goodbye to her because he felt as though he were abandoned. She hadn’t realized everyone had rallied around her in this case, but she didn’t want to take it to the lengths that it apparently had. It had been her fault that he left, all the screaming, fighting, and just plain humiliation had been too much for him to handle if no one were listening to him.

“I don’t ---” started Fred

“Know what --- ” continued George

“Any of you --- ” said Fred

“Are talking about --- ” said George

“But we’ve --- ” said Fred

“Never abandoned --- ” said George

“Harry, we’ve --- ” said Fred

“Stuck by him --- ” said George

“Even if none --- ” said Fred

“Of you have, ” finished George.

Albus stood to get everyone’s attention, “It seems as though our errant Mr. Potter has been located, now comes what to do with the fact that he has gone off on his own.”

“Albus, you don’t mean…to drag the boy back here?” asked Moody dangerously fingering his wand.

“Albus! Mr. Potter is there on legitimate business; you can no longer control every single of his life. You can’t honestly believe that you can go over and just calmly ask him to return and he will do so. Things don’t work like that anymore,” state Minerva.

Albus almost stepped back in surprised with the vehemence that both of his colleagues suddenly stepped on the defense of Mr. Potter. “No, I don’t mean that,” backtracking quickly, “I merely meant that now that we know where Mr. Potter is, anything we require of him we can easily find him in New York.”

This time Remus laughed quietly to himself, “New York is a huge place, I doubt anyone not familiar with the city would be able to find their way around easily.”

Fred or was it George rounded on him at once, “Remus? Have you been there before?”

“Yes, actually I went with Sirius and James a while back for summer vacation one year. Of course I was brought along unwillingly, so therefore didn’t have my wand or anything, just unceremoniously kidnapped,” smiled Remus.

“All right, now that we know where Harry is, anyone want to come along with me to go collect him, so he can return home?” asked Ron.

Everyone stared at him incredulously, “Ron are you insane? Have you not heard anything we just said? Harry is now working across the pond, he’s not coming back anytime soon,” said Ginny.

The twins and Remus nodded in agreement, “Now if there is nothing else important I’m leaving, I have an appointment with someone to keep,” said Ginny. Fred and George followed with Albus and Minerva close behind, though the latter couple was arguing furiously.

Molly and Arthur got up to follow suit, but before they did, walked over to Ron and Hermione, “I’m sorry that everything’s come to this, but I assure we did everything with the best of intentions,” said Molly before she walked out the door.

In the silence that followed, Ron and Hermione sat across from Remus at the table, “Did we overdo it? Did we drive him away?” asked Hermione in a soft voice.

“Hermione, Harry loved you with everything he had to love you with, but at the first sign of trouble you throw him over like used trash. He tried so hard to explain his side of the story, but you had already made up your mind. It just got too hard for him to not be with you and for the entire Weasley family ganging up on him. I think the separation was the last straw, he felt as though there was no longer any hope of repairing anything he had here. So he left to start again elsewhere. I know this is difficult to hear, but it needs to be said, you definitely went way too far and not even hearing what he had to say about it that hurt him the most, that you wouldn’t trust him to give him the benefit of the doubt,” said Remus sadly before getting up and walking away.

Hermione stared after Remus before she burst into tears; Ron folded her into his arms as she cried stormily into his shirt, soaking it within seconds. Although she didn’t see it, even Ron had a couple of tears slowly travel down his face, though he would deny it to everyone.

In the dim lighting of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, the two friends cried, grieving for what they had done to their best friend.