Already Gone

Chapter 2

"Was that an owl I heard?" Hermione asked and Ginny nodded.

"Harry's. Haven't seen him, have you? Apparently, he's wandering about the house."

"Really?" Hermione asked as Harry walked in.

"Really." Ginny spun. Harry was just standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Harry!" As the others rocketed downstairs and Ginny gave Harry a great grinning hug. There was something oddly charged in the moment, a surprise to both of them. The others arrived and Harry got more hugs.

----

Olivia looked at her room and sighed as she packed her trunk. She hide some books at the bottom of it as Draco appeared in her room. "Hey, Draco." He walked over to her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"How have you been feeling?" He asked her with wide eyes, scared about what she was going to say.

"I'm okay. Nothing major has happened yet." He nodded and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "If anything was to happen, you would be the first to know." She told her boyfriend who nodded.

"Are you going to tell your father?" Olivia looked up at Draco with wide eyes.

"If he did that Unbreakable Vow or not, he would kill you." Draco nodded and pulled Olivia back to him.

"Stay near me please. I don't want you getting hurt." Olivia looked up at Draco and smiled. God she loved him.

"You got it Dra." He nodded and made her sit on the bed.

---

"But why didn't you tell us you were coming?" Mrs. Weasley asked him and he shrugged.

"Didn't know." He shrugged again. "Dumbledore."

"That man. But then, what would we do without him? Ron!" Ron was about to touch Hermione and she retracted her neck. "Harry, is Olivia coming too?" Harry shook his head.

"You've a bit of." He gestured to the stray lace of toothpaste on Hermione's chin. Quickly she wiped it off and gave him an odd look.

The Daily Prophet tumbled within a makeshift campfire of blue flames, but magically doesn't disintegrate. Harry teased the fire with the tip of his wand, where The Chosen One? mingled with Draco's haunted face in the flames. "When'd you get here?" He asked Hermione.

"A few days ago. Though... for a bit, I wasn't sure I was coming." Harry looked up and saw her glance at Ron.

"Mum sort of lost it last week. Said Ginny and I had no business going back to Hogwarts. That it's too dangerous." Harry didn't understand why Ron's mum didn't want him to go back to Hogwarts.

"Oh come on." Harry looked at his two friends.

"She's not alone. Even my parents, and they're Muggles, know something bad is happening." Hermione told him and he looked down.

"Anyway, Dad stepped in, told her she was being barmy. Took a day or two, but she came round." Harry nodded, glad his friends father talked their mother into go back to Hogwarts.

"But we're talking about Hogwarts. Dumbledore. What could be safer?" Hermione and Ron exchanged another glance.

"There's been a lot of chatter lately. That he's gotten... old." Harry shook his head at that. He couldn't be that old.

"Rubbish. He's only -- what?" Harry asked them and they looked at each other.

"A hundred and fifty. Give or take a few years." Silently they nodded at each other. Then the three broke out laughing. They quickly grew quiet again. Harry took another poke at the Prophet. Draco's haunted face appeared briefly before it was gone.