Don't Look Back In Anger (Completed)

Chapter 6: An Open Door

"I need your help, Ron. As you can see, Luna is incredibly vulnerable while she's visiting Harry. If Malfoy and his goons show up for their usual visit, we need to protect her." She knew Ron was always going to back her up with that task, he still had a question though.

"…and what about Ginny?"

"I just don't have time to deal with her jealousies. My entire family are having to leave Britain because it's not safe for us any more. Harry's being forced into doing the same. Voldemort's back, and neither Hogwarts nor the ministry have a good record of protecting him. All Ginny sees though is her chances of dating the boy-who-lived disappearing, and not the danger Harry's in if he stays here. That's her problem, Ron, not mine. She came to me this morning looking for an argument, she then stepped into this carriage looking for a fight - her wand was already in her hand. So not happening, Ron, I have far more important things to deal with than your little sister's jealousy. Harry and Luna are both depending on me, there's no way I'm going to let them down."

Having watched Hermione face down Dumbledore and McGonagall that night in the infirmary, Ron could understand why Ginny would be nothing more than a minor irritation. When it came to defending Harry, Ron himself knew Hermione would plough right through him too in her efforts to achieve that goal. She would probably regret doing it but Hermione wouldn't hesitate. Looking at Ginny resting there, Ron thought it was probably for the best not to revive his sister. Hermione and Ginny firing curses at each other was never going to end well.

"So, is this the last time I'm going to see you?"

This change of tact had tears forming in the corners of Hermione's eyes. "I hope we'll see each other again, you know both Harry and I will write. We just don't know what's in front of us Ron."

This actually drew a chuckle from Ron. "We never have - the three of us just faced whatever came up together. Now you're heading to France and Harry's still stuck in Azkaban. I might be heading back to the Burrow as normal but we know this is anything but normal. Everything is changing and I don't know what to do about it."

There were students passing their compartment and looking in, seeing Hermione and Ron sitting chatting as normal dispelled any concerns about the two sleeping girls. Sleeping on a long train journey wasn't exactly an unusual occurrence. What might be regarded unusual though was Malfoy's non appearance.

Since there was already a groundswell of bad feeling against Slytherin from the other three houses, and Snape wasn't here to defend them if anything kicked off, the snakes were keeping a decidedly low profile on the train. There were a lot more students, other than Luna and Hermione, who wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts come September, disgusted as they received a glimpse over the last week of how things really were in Hogwarts. These students now had nothing to lose so taunting them any further could see an unwelcome backlash - unwelcome to anyone wearing Slytherin robes that is.

-oOoOo-

It was a thoroughly agitated Dolores who arrived in Azkaban, what she subsequently found there drove her temper to new heights.

"I told yeah, he just lays there all day in some kinda trance. He must wake up at night 'cause his food n' water are empty in the mornin'."

To say Dolores didn't take this news too well would have been a massive understatement. Potter was supposed to be a quivering wreck by now, not laying there sleeping as if he didn't have a care in the world. This was intended to be a severe punishment yet he seemed oblivious to his surroundings. How in the name of Merlin was this supposed to break him?