After It All Ended

Land Down Under

Soon enough, after a backpack of food made by Mrs Weasley, and a muggle magazine full of sites to visualise for apparating from Mr Weasley, Ron and I were ready to go.

To finally find my parents.

"Where are we off to first?" Ron questioned, shouldering the backpack without discussion.

I smiled gently at his gentlemanly behaviour before I focused my mind back on the subject at hand.

"My home." I whispered, closing my eyes.

I held out my arm to him. He clasped my hand and we apparated.

A short while later, I was outside my childhood home. My shoes sunk into the dense grass and a smile played on my lips as I let memories speed through my mind.

Ron and I walked up the garden path, hand in hand, and stopped at the door. I held up my other hand, trembling, and slowly balled it into a fist and rapped smartly.

"Who in heavens is here now?" A voice groaned on the other side of the door, as footsteps stomped towards us.

The door opened. Behind it, stood a lady with black hair tied up in a messy bun. She wore a pink silk bath robe and fluffy pink slippers, and her irritated facial expression told me very swiftly she didn't want us to be here. I also very swiftly realised why as I remembered the time was something like 6:30.

"What?!" She snapped.

When none of us spoke she continued:

"What in the blazes are you children doing here so early in the morning?! Me husband and I are trying to get some peace and fun on Boxing Day morning, but obviously we can't!" She barked at us.

"We were wondering," I started, in a slightly shaking voice, "If you happened to know where a Mr. and Mrs. Granger went? They used to live in this house, you see. I'm sorry for disturbing you and your husband, but this matter is rather urgent. Do you happen to know where they might be?"

She wrinkled her nose, staring off into the distance. "Mr. and Mrs. Granger, eh? Yes, me husband and I must've bought this house off of 'em, what four months ago? Yes, they were strange folk.

"Bought some house down in Australia, said it was their dream to live in some small suburb near Sydney. Pymble, I think it was? Ah, I remember now, they even sent us the address 'lest someone asks' they said, which we thought was odd, but I s'pose you're those someone's. It was 3 or 4 King Edward Street, Pymble.

"They should be living in comfort by now, I s'pose.

"Anyway if you haven't got anymore questions, I'd like to ask ya if ya could use the garden path on the way out? Me husband mows the lawn to perfection every weekend and I don't want to see fifteen footprints in random places when I come out here. Now, if you'll excuse me."

She closed the door, and we left, hand in hand. Once we were on the road we began to talk.

"'Mione in Auror training we train to apparate long distances. You know that I'll be fine, once I've finished visualising the surroundings. It will be pushing the limits a bit, but I trust in magic." Ron offered.

"Hmm." I mused, before considering the matter over.

"Ron, are you tired? Really, though? Answer me truthfully because these questions could determine your level of splinching." I explained, gauging his reaction.

"I'm a little tired, but I had an all right sleep, so I think I should be fine." Ron answered.

"Right. This will be a long journey though, Ron. We need to go through Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and finally Australia."