Hermione’s time at the Burrow had been pretty fun. Unfortunately Lucius Malfoy hadn't been arrested, but he had to pay a massive fine and was officially declared guilty of assault. Mr. Weasley still said it was corrupt, but Lucius Malfoy was still being lambasted in the papers and his public reputation was in the toilet.

After everything, the Weasleys had offered to let Hermione stay here for the rest of the summer. She got to fly on a broom a little more and play some Quidditch for herself with the Weasley siblings. Hermione was the worst of all of them, and was usually opposed to Ron on the teams, much to his embarrassment.

Despite being the youngest, Ginny was very good at handling her broom, almost matching Fred and George in skill in her maneuvers. Hermione on the other hand wobbled and teetered on her broom as she turned and only some subtle wandless spells on her part stopped her from falling off a few times.

Last week after Hermione had had some time to relax a little she had gotten Dobby to help verify that she didn’t have the trace on her. He had apparated her into a known muggle only town and then Hermione had cast a very obvious charm when no one was looking at her with her wand.

Casting a spell through her wand felt oddly uncomfortable these days versus using her wandless magic. Then Dobby had apparated them to a safe distance where they could watch to see if anyone came to investigate. Nothing happened, and Hermione was relieved that she could practice her spells as much as she wanted without having to worry about the Ministry as long as she was careful. It seems she didn't have the trace on her after all.

She felt guilty a little for wasting Dobby’s time just waiting around, but she got to talk with him about what he was up to while they were waiting so she didn’t feel too bad about it. Apparently he was trying to get a job as a store clerk at one of the shops at Diagon Alley so he could make some money legally. Hermione asked him about the paperwork, but he had gotten uncomfortable when she asked so they were probably forged by some criminal that Dobby had heard of while enslaved to Lucius Malfoy.

Hermione didn’t dig deeper after realizing that. That’s also probably how he got the initial money for food and his clothes as well, Hermione had realized. Dobby had worn a set of plain wizards robes on when they had been waiting, and she had occasionally caught him running his hands over them and pinching it in places as if to make sure they were still real. Hermione pretended not to notice.

It was good Dobby was only breaking the law enough to establish himself and now was trying to get a normal upstanding job. Hermione was sure that he could make a lot of money as a criminal with how powerful his magic was, even if she didn’t want to be the one to tell him that.

“Heya, Hermione. What are you writing there?”

Hermione shut her journal hastily, realizing her thoughts had wandered again. She looked up and saw Ginny standing there barefoot in a bright summer dress, staring at the book in Hermione’s hands curiously. The journal actually only had twenty or so blank pages left, and Hermione would have to make sure to buy a new one before she went back to Hogwarts. Hopefully she wouldn’t fill that one too.

“Hermione? Why are you looking sad all of a sudden?” Ginny said in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s… It’s nothing, Ginny. I’m fine. It’s just my journal.”

Ginny came over and plopped down next to her on the couch. Hermione hadn’t talked to her too much in the time she had been staying here.

“What do you write in there? I’ve never had a journal before. Is that the same thing as a diary?”

“Huh, I don’t actually know. I guess I didn’t really think of it as a diary because it is not really meant for me…”

“Huh?” Ginny said, “Who’d you be writing a journal for if not yourself? Isn’t that the whole point, to record your thoughts and stuff?” She leaned over and caught a glance at the page Hermione was writing on. She seemed to notice how far in Hermione was writing, “Woah, did you write in all of that? You’ve filled a lot of those pages, how long have you been doing it?”

“Four months or so. I don’t know, I guess I got in the habit of doing it a lot. It is sort of relaxing just writing everything down instead of having it all in your head.”

“What made you decide to do it? Mom tried to get me to do it a few years ago, but I didn’t want to because I was sure she’d try to read it. It was all part of some sort of plan to spy on me, I’m sure of it.”

Hermione snorted.

“What?” Ginny said, “You didn’t see her face when I said it sounded boring. She was so disappointed, it was just too suspicious. No, I’m serious!”

Hermione started laughing.

“What?” Ginny said, looking confused, “What did I say?”

Hermione calmed down a little,

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“Sorry, Sorry. It’s only funny for me. It’s just- Ginny, I was just reading this book on sensory spells and there’s just so, so many spells in there made to spy on everyone. Spells to defend yourself from being spied on. The author was always going on and on about how you had to imagine you were always being watched and have to cast a dozen spells to be sure people weren’t spying on you. He sounded just like you.”

Hermione tried to make a deep gruff voice like how she imagined the author spoke, “They’re always watching me! Whenever you walk outside beware of an ambush on your front stoop! Shield your movements before you even approach the door!”

“Hey!” Ginny said in protest, “I do not sound like that. Plus if he wrote a book about it, people probably really were spying on him right? So maybe he was right to be all paranoid about everything! How many times was he ambushed just outside his door that he needed to put it in the book?”

Hermione suppressed her giggles and Ginny’s face scrunched a little.

“I’m just trying to be friendly, you don’t have to make fun of me like this.” Ginny said before undercutting her point by flopping back on the couch and theatrically sighing, flinging her arms up as she slid slightly down into the cushions dramatically.

Hermione shrugged, still laughing a little, “Sorry, I’ll stop. I’ll stop. What were you saying before?”

Ginny sat back up, “I’m actually only sorta joking about my mom, you know. But really, why did you start a journal? I'm curious!”

Hermione’s good mood dropped a little, “Oh, well. It is um. It’s for Harry. Harry Potter. For when he wakes up from his coma.”

“Oh,” Ginny said.

Hermione stared at the pages of her journal, idly flipping through them as they both went silent.

“Uhm. Sorry, Hermione. I didn’t know…” Ginny said, and Hermione looked up to see the girl shifting uncomfortably, bunching and releasing the end of her dress over and over with her fists.

“...That can’t be very nice for you,” Ginny said, “Sorry for bringing it up.”

Hermione kept looking at Ginny and saw the girl looking completely dejected in comparison to her practically skipping into the room before.

Hermione looked down at the journal, then back up at Ginny, “How much did Ron tell you about Harry, Ginny?”

Ginny groaned, “Nothing! I had to practically drag every word out of him. He never talks about school with me if he doesn’t have to. I’m going this year, of course I’m curious about what it's like!”

Hermione began flipping to the first page of the journal, “Did he at least tell you how Harry has a perfect memory? That he will remember anything he sees or hears for his whole life, forever?”

Ginny nodded, “I mean Ron said at least that much. I still can’t believe he could… can do that.”

Hermione ignored Ginny’s slip. Everyone except Hermione thought that way even if they didn’t admit it.

“Well,” Hermione continued, “By writing as much as I can, Harry can pick up where he left off. He’ll remember every little detail, then he’ll… it’ll be like he didn’t miss those days. He’ll know all the jokes, gossip. All the extra research I did on my own. Everything. It’ll be like… like…”

Ginny shifted in her seat uncomfortably, “Hermione, you don’t have to…”

“...It’ll be like he was there the whole time. That he didn't miss it at all.” Hermione finished in a rush, unable to stop now that she was finally able to say what had been driving her to write in the journal this whole time. Hermione felt good in letting out the words finally, even if they didn’t really make much sense.

Hermione looked at Ginny who looked so much more depressed than she had when she had walked in the room. Hermione felt bad she had brought down the mood so much. She looked at the first page of her journal, filled with spell diagrams and dry facts. She had only thought to put in the more personal stuff too later on. She started flipping pages until she reached the first bits of gossip. She stared at it for a while. When was the last time Hermione had read back the old pages she had written in the beginning?

“Hey, Ginny." Hermione said after making a decision, "Would you like to borrow it for a while? Maybe I can answer some of your questions about Hogwarts if you think of anything too? I mean, just because the journal is for Harry doesn’t mean it can’t be useful to other people too. I put some useful spells in there as well that might be fun to learn once you get to the end of the year. If you want to borrow it again after Harry wakes up and memorizes it, I mean.”

Ginny gingerly grabbed the book as Hermione handed it over. Ginny glanced between the book and Hermione a few times in confusion,

“Are you sure? I mean, I thought you put your darkest thoughts and stuff in journals. What if you put something really embarrassing in here?”

Hermione thought back and almost snatched the book back as she did remember some of the things she had written in the past. But she stopped herself, none of them were that bad.

“It's fine. Maybe you can tell me if there’s something missing, then I can fill it in for Harry! But when Harry comes back I’ll definitely need it right away, okay? So please keep it safe.”

Ginny hugged the book to her chest, still seeming unsure but keeping it protected in her arms like it might leap away from her at any moment. “Are you really, really, sure? Don’t you need it to write more?”

Hermione shook her head, “I was just thinking about getting a new one anyway. That’s what I was sad about, that I made it through a whole book without Harry waking up. Maybe it’s best to get a new book for the start of a new school year. It’ll help keep things more organized at least. I’ll ask my parents to buy some blank ones when I see them tomorrow.”

Ginny seemed to relax. “And I can ask you some stuff at Hogwarts? It’s not weird for a first year to talk to the older years and ask you questions?”

Hermione shrugged, “Well, I don’t know actually. Probably not, but I don’t think I would mind too much at least.”

Ginny held the book to her chest for a while. “Thanks Hermione. This really means a lot, I’ll definitely take good care of it,” Ginny eventually said.

Hermione felt a little lighter than before, and started talking with Ginny a little more as everyone milled about the Burrow over the next few days.

Hermione liked Ginny. Whenever they talked Hermione never knew which way the conversation would end up going.

There was something exciting about that, Ginny's chaotic energy just made Hermione laugh sometimes.