‘Hermione’, Ron said, as he absentmindedly played with his deluminator.
The flicking on and off of the lamp in the corner of the room did irritate her immensely, but as it seemed to distract him from everything that had happened over the last number of months, she did not have the heart to give out to him and simply moved her chair in front of the large window, which gave her plenty of light to read by. Reading was for her what playing with the deluminator was for Ron.
With her own parents, over on the other side of the world, oblivious of her existence, Ron’s parents had kindly offered that she could stay with them for as long as she wanted. They had made the same offer to Harry, but Harry had politely refused, indicating that he needed some time away from everything and everyone he knew.
Hermione suspected he had gone off to the States and idly wondered if he would come back hot. It baffled her that this appeared to be a thing and she often wondered by what process this was achieved. Not that looks were important to her, of course, and Harry’s looks should be completely immaterial to her, but she could not help wondering what a hot Harry would look like. Not that he was in any way bad looking, but…
‘Hermione’, Ron repeated, when she did not answer, startling her out of her reverie, ‘Would you say you know every spell that exist?’
‘Of course not, Ron,’ Hermione replied exasperated, ’No-one does. New spells are invented all the time. Some spells are recorded in books, such as ‘The Standard Book of Spells’, and yes, I probably know most of them, but others aren’t. Remember that spell Harry used on Draco that was meant to be for ‘enemies’. The one he found in that potions book? Well, I dare say there are many more spells like that in existence that are not in normal spell books. Why did you ask?’
‘You know Accio?’ Ron continued.
‘Yes, of course and so do you.’
‘Have you ever wondered if there were any limits to that spell?’
‘Not particularly, no, I suspect you can Accio just about anything.’
‘Anything, so I could Accio a pen from that desk and a chair from the next room and flowers out of the garden for that vase?’
‘Definitely yes to the first two, but I have never tried the last one, and I am not sure how that would work, as Accio wouldn’t cut the flowers, and you don’t really want to put flowers in a vase roots and all.’
‘But I could Accio my broom out of the shed, yes?’
‘Yes, if you can visualise exactly where the broom is.’
‘Could I Accio food from the kitchen?’
‘Yes, Ron,’ Hermione said with a sigh, getting slightly irritated with the incessant stream of questions. They both knew how to Accio, so she could not see the point of his questions.
‘Then WHY THE HELL DID WE NOT ACCIO FOOD WHEN WE WERE STARVING, INSTEAD OF EATING SOME HORRIBLE LOOKING MUSHROOMS WE FORAGED IN THE FOREST!’ Ron said, raising his voice.
Hermione sighed. This wasn’t their first foray into What if territory. Of course Hermione knew WHY he was asking her this question and why now.
Ron had been reliving every moment of that blasted war and of the many months of blundering through the countryside before it. It was giving him nightmares. He had also been grappling with his guilt over leaving his best friends in the lurch in the middle of it.
Truth be told, they were all reliving every minute of the past number of months, every moment of every day.
It was the reason Harry could not face coming back here, to the Burrow.
It was the reason Hermione had nowhere else to go.
They were re-examining every decision they made. Could they have done anything differently that would have prevented Dobby’s death. What if they had figured out where the Horcruxes were and how to destroy them sooner. Would Remus and Tonks still be alive, if they had figured out the diadem horcrux first, when Voldemort was not yet aware that they were hunting them. Maybe then there would not have been any battle of Hogwarts. Maybe then Fred could have been spared. What if Dumbledore had confided in Snape or the Order, when he first suspected the existence of horcruxes, rather than keeping this a secret and embarking on this whole insane plan. What had been the point of the Horcrux hunt by a small group of inept teenagers, other than months of frustration.
Yes, Hermione knew full well why Ron was wondering, a bit too loudly, why the hell he had to suffer an empty stomach when they theoretically could have Accio-ed food, even though the real question went way beyond this.
‘We were in the middle of nowhere, Ron,’ she said patiently, ‘You can’t just Accio something out of thin air. You have to be able to visualise the object you are Accio-ing and the exact location you are Accio-ing it from. You can’t just Accio a roast dinner...’
‘Watch me’, Ron said, before she could finish her sentence.
‘Accio roast beef,’ he said, as he pointed his wand in the direction of the kitchen, where he pictured the large roast his mother had just taken out of the oven and had set to rest on the kitchen table. A large platter containing their dinner came sailing in through the open door, followed by his Mum’s loud squeals that immediately seemed to turn into sobs.
Both Ron and Hermione jumped up in alarm and ran into the kitchen, carrying the Accio-ed roast with them.
‘Sorry Mum, we were just practicing Accio,’ Ron said, his voice taking on a tone of concern at his mum’s stricken face.
‘I know, dear,’ she said softly, ‘it is just that my first thought was that Fred and George were up to no good as usual and then I remembered there is no Fred and George any more, just George and his pranking days seem to be over, and …’
Molly sank into a nearby chair and sobbed silently.
The first wizarding war had been bad for her, losing two of her brothers, but this war had been worse.
She didn’t even get any satisfaction out of killing Bellatrix. In fact the opposite was the case. She never set out to kill anyone. She was just protecting her family and even that she couldn’t do properly. One of her sons was dead and another heartbroken at the loss of his twin. Molly continued to weep silently.
Hermione and Ron were at a loss for words. There was nothing they could say that would ease the pain or change the sad reality that Fred was gone. Merlin knew that they had been struggling with this themselves. Ron placed the offending dish back on the kitchen table and hugged his mum, whispering ‘Sorry’, as he did so.
After they retreated back to the living room, Hermione admonished Ron.
‘If you had just let me finish my sentence, you would have known that while you clearly can Accio food when you know exactly where it is at that time and can picture its location in your mind, you cannot Accio a three course meal from just anywhere, unless you know exactly where it is at that particular time. And even if you knew where a particular food was at a particular time, how would you explain food making its way magically to you. It is not as if Accio makes the food invisible, you know. What if Muggles had seen it, what if another wizard had seen it and had become curious? We were in hiding, remember. Don’t you think I haven’t agonised over everything we could have done differently?’
The tears in Hermione’s eyes nearly broke Ron’s heart. They had been through so much together and they wouldn’t have been able to figure out half of the stuff without Hermione’s help.
He walked over to her and took her in his arms, holding her tight, and kissed her softly on the top of her head.
‘I know,’ he said, ‘I know that there is nothing we can do to change the past, but it sucks.’
‘That it does!’
They were startled by the appearance of George.
‘Nice job at Accio-ing the dinner,’ he said with a wry smile.
‘Fred would have appreciated that, you know. I know we are all grieving him and all our other friends at the moment, but he would hate for us to stop having fun.
Anyway, what made you Accio the roast from under our mother’s nose,’ he asked with a grin, genuinely intrigued.
They filled him in on their debate and he gave it some serious thought.
‘I think in theory, there probably are no limitations on Accio, beyond that there might be consequences when being observed by the uninitiated. Pity, we did not think of using that simple spell during the battle. We could have tried to Accio Voldy himself straight into the dungeons, or Accio-ed Nagini at least. Fred would have liked the idea that he could have been Accio-ed.’ They were all silent for a minute contemplating Fred’s potential final battle cry ‘Accio me the hell out of here!’
‘So could you Accio, say eh, the Eiffel Tower?’ Ron asked after a while.
Two heads turned to him in bemused surprise.
‘What, I know some things beyond Ottery St Catchpole,’ Ron said indignantly and at the continued inquisitive gaze from his brother added, ‘Ok, I might have looked up some stuff about France during the whole Wizarding Tournament Saga.’
At this they all laughed, remembering Ron’s obsession with the Beauxbatons students at the time.
‘Accio-ing the Eiffel Tower might be a theoretical possibility,‘ George said, ‘but it is a National Monument, last time I looked, so it probably wouldn’t be the wisest thing to do, unless you could hide it somewhere, undetected from the rest of the world for the rest of your life. You would have every Auror in the world hunting you down for Merlin knows how many Wizarding Statute of Secrecy violations, never mind the muggle police and what they call Interpol for stealing one of the largest, most famous man-made constructions that appear to have no actual practical purpose, other than as a tourist attraction. So, eh, probably not worth testing that theory, bro, but I’m sure Fred would have appreciated your large scale thinking,’ George concluded.
He hesitated slightly before continuing. ‘Maybe you and I should look at maybe working together. I was going to give up the whole Weasleys Wizard Wheezes thing, as it would not be the same without Fred, but maybe between the two of us we could keep some of his spirit alive.’
Ron looked as if he was about to cry. He sniffed loudly before replying softly ‘Yes, I would love that.’
And just like that they had made a very small step towards putting the past behind them and healing this big hole in their family.
The two brothers hugged and Hermione had to look away to stop herself from bawling her eyes out.
She was happy to see the Weasleys trying to deal with their grief, but she had lost so much herself and worse, she had lost her only family at her own doing.
First her being a wizard had put her parents in a very awkward position. They were thrilled of course, when they realised their daughter was gifted in more ways than they could comprehend. But as soon as Hermione got her Hogwarts letter, they realised that their lives would change forever. How were they going to explain why and where their daughter was going to boarding school, or where she worked. It would make for very awkward dinner conversations with their friends. To protect Hermione, and to avoid such future discomfort, they cut all ties with their old friends, moved away to a small town where they knew very few people and where no-one knew they had a daughter. Whenever Hermione came home to visit they passed her off as a distant niece. They seemed happy enough, but until Hermione obliviated them, she had not realised how much they had given up for her. She hoped they had made lots of new friends in Australia without the need to hide things from them. While she would love to see them and hug them again, she knew that their lives would be far less complicated without her. If only she could as easily forget about them. She missed her parents desperately.
Hermione looked around her. Despite the fact that the Weasleys had been mourning Fred, her stay at the Burrow had been wonderful, as they fully accepted her as one of their own, not just because she now was Ron’s girlfriend. That last bit still felt very new and strange to them both, but she supposed it had been inevitable, even though it had taken Ron a lot longer to realise his true feelings and it had taken the deluminator of all things, to bring him back to her.
Rita Skeeter would have a field day, if she knew that Hermione had rejected the two most famous seekers in the world to end up with a very ordinary wizard. Of course, Hermione knew better than most that Ron was so much more than just an ordinary wizard. He was the glue that held their friendship with Harry and their other DA friends together and as he had just proven, he was the glue that held his family together. He might not be the Boy Who Lived, but he was definitely the boy who made her life worth living.
She watched the banter between the two brothers affectionately, as they were slowly beginning to bridge the older brother – younger brother – colleague gap.
‘Dinner is ready,’ Molly’s voice could be heard from the kitchen.
With the smallest of glance at each other, both brothers lifted their wands. ‘Accio Roast beef’, they both shouted with a wide grin on their faces.
‘Oh for Merlin’s sake, will you cut that out,’ their mother shouted exasperated, as her fabulous dinner sailed out of the kitchen for the second time that day.
As they brought the dinner back into the kitchen, they could imagine Fred laughing at their shenanigans from the afterlife.