sorry i know it's been forever... this is for quidditch 7 im sorry it's taken so long!

I watched as Hermione soundlessly walked out in to the now gathering snowstorm that whipped down the alleys and around the square

I watched as Hermione soundlessly walked out in to the now gathering snowstorm that whipped down the alleys and around the square. Hermione looked back over her shoulder at Harry and Elzbeth before disapperating off in to the night.

"She ok?"

"No." said Harry closing the door on the snowy scene outside.

The raging fire in the kitchen calls us to it and I sit next to Harry at the old oak table.

"Shouldn't you go with her?" I ask him as he stares in to the burning flames.

"They need time to throw things at each other."

I trace the pattern of the wood on the table. Watching the way that the light flickers on the wood and how Harry casts a shadow over the gap between us.

"What is it about all of us…why is it only our generation that seams so damn confused!" I don't know where it came from but it came from something that was buried deep within me.

Harry stood and watched me as I tried to make his face out in the dimming light.

"Were the forgotten generation, we have no one to look at for guidance… look at us how many of us have parents left? How many of us have a life that hasn't seen trauma and pain?"

Harry slipped in to the seat beside me quietly, I felt his hand find mine.

"You're not aloud to do the bitter and twisted, that's my call." I can feel my lips forming a smile.

" I saw that."

"Oh shut up."

" I will be right back." He said getting to his feet. I watch him go he looks back as he turns to go up the stairs.

There is a creek behind the kitchen door. I automatically reach for my wand before realising it just Kretcher. He is watching me quietly.

"I know you." He whispers quietly.

"Yes, Harry just introduced me." I say quietly back, for some reason I just don't want to be loud around this animal, I'm scared it will frighten him away.

"No I know you, Kreatcher has been and seen many things…"

I get up and walk towards the animal that steps back quickly and cowers.

"I'm not going to hurt you!" I say quickly shocked at the sudden withdrawal.

The creature looks at me, slowly it backs away…

"Kreatcher, stop…"

I watch as the beast freezes to the spot his long brittle ears trembling.

A sound upstairs makes me look up.

"Kretcher I need you up here a second" shouts Harry's voice and with a loud crack Kretcher was gone.

I step back and look at the spot where the elf just stood.

He took a direct order from me. He couldn't move at all.

I check around the room behind me, no I'm alone there isn't anyone else here. How does he know me? The elf was old; he could be getting confused in his old age. Was he confusing the earlier introduction with a much older memory?

"There you are! Are you ok?" Harry stood looking at me in the doorway.

"Yeah, just …oh nothing."

Harry looked at me over the top of his glasses. "You sure you're ok?"

"It's ok, I'm just being a bit crazy it's alright what were you saying?"

Harry handed me the small diary that we had been reading upstairs.

"Merry Christmas."

I look down at the tomb.

"Before you say anything I want you to have it, it might tell you a bit about your dad if you dig deep enough."

"But, but…"

"Shut up and take it" he smiled at me and reached out for my hand, I take it as if it's the most natural thing in the world.

"Come on we should go see if Hermione has turned Ron in to a toad yet, although to be honest it would take a lot to make her go that far." Said Harry leading me in to the hall.

"You really don't know your best friend do you?"

"Hermione is a angel."

"Yeah of the demonic sort, I don't think you realise how much you to leaving affected her."

Harry stopped at the door and looked in to the dark hall.

"It's going to take a while but things will go back to normal."

I just shake my head.

"This is what I mean, there isn't anything that we can call normal, we don't know normal."

"It's Christmas Eve, can we not get in to this?"

I look in to the dark where Harry is looking Kretcher is watching us.

"Good night Kretcher, Merry Christmas." Says Harry reaching for the doorknob.

The elf bowed low, and muttered under his breath so low I don't think Harry heard but I swear that I heard him say ' and the same masters.'

Have I told you how pig stubborn Ronald Wesley is? He is the most arrogant stubborn pigheaded arrogant pigheaded…oh who am I kidding, he is what I make him. He is standing at the far end of the lane that leads to his mothers with a smug look on his face.

"It's been so long since I saw you walking down this lane." He calls to me. The wind is low here, the snow deep and undisturbed bar his footprints. I watch as my feet fall in to the holes that his have left in the snow before me I cant remember the lane being so peaceful or the stars above being so beautiful, maybe I never realised how perfect this place was before tonight. My anger subsided as soon as I reached here, as did Ron's I think as I look at him retracing his steps towards me.

"Why did you apperate all the way up the other side of the lane?" he shouts at me, as he makes his way to where I'm struggling through the snowdrift.

"Because Ronald, I know what your like." I say standing still on the crest of the hill. I point behind him as he comes up and joins me at my side.

"The Burrow looks perfect from this spot, I know you always stop here to look." I say turning to look at him. His gaze is falling over his family home. The moon lit cottage looked wonderful like something out of a chocolate box all covered in snow and light poring from the window.

"You wouldn't think that everything had happened." Said Ron resting his head on my shoulder and looking down the valley.

I take my eyes away from the view and find his eyes.

"Did you really cry over me?"

"The manly answer would be to say no, but lets face it I'm not much of a man." He rests his forehead against mine. "You know how I feel about you Hermione, I have told you and proven to you a thousand times over that you're the reason that I keep on going, you have seen the very best and the very worst of me. Harry knows how much I love you, he knows I would have died for you. We fight 'Mione that's what we do, that's our thing, if you haven't worked that out by now your not as clever as I had you made out."

"But you left me."

"Because I had to, and it killed me it really did." He sighed. "It felt like I was leaving a little bit of me behind every corner we turned, a little bit of me that I wished every day I could get back and hold."

I stare at his eyes in the darkness cast by the shadows of the moonlight.

"Yes I cried. I cried so hard sometimes, I wished that someone would just come and kill me, put me out of the pain. Being away from you for so long is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, harder than admitting that I was wrong, harder than thinking that you loved Harry, harder than any fight I have ever fought, don't you get it Hermione… I love you and I'm nothing without you, in the grand scheme of things a year out of a lifetime isn't anything, and I promise from now on I'm not going anywhere."

How do you answer something like that? I feel like my heart might actually explode, I can feel the tears stinging in my eyes, I know I won't cry though, he's right, one year in the grand scheme of things is nothing, I rest my head in to his hand that is now caressing my face. Despite the cold his hand is warm, his fingers warm me as much as his words.

"FOR MERLIN'S SAKE KISS HIM WILL YOU. BEFORE I DO!"

Elzbeth's voice broke the moment. Ron looked over my shoulder…

"I'm with her! I would kiss you too mate after that little speech." Said Harry's voice as I bury my head in to Ron's chest; I can feel the laughter in his chest rising till it's in full flow.

"You two need to get a room." Says Elzbeth as her and Harry pass as the moon passes behind a cloud, I notice that Harry has her by the hand but I let it go.

"A little privacy would go a long way yes." I shout down the lane after the two of them. Elzbeth's dark hair swaying as she looks over her shoulder to pull a face before her and Harry cast their patroness down the lane before them.

Both Ron and me look at each other, we both noticed the same thing, Padfoot and Prongs had just lit the dark night sky.