I don't own Harry Potter, it's all J.K. Rowling's.
This is just a fun little story, nothing more, nothing less.
Read, review, and hopefully, enjoy!
Chapter 1
"Harrryyy, hurry uppp! Hermione's going to be extremely mad if we are late!" Ginny called up the stairs of their house to her husband of nineteen years.
"Coming dear," he said when he reached the top of the stairs. He walked down the first few stairs as slowly as he could until Ginny yelled at him to hurry up and he ran down the last few stairs until he was on the floor. He then looked at her innocently.
"I'm ready to go when you are sweetie," he said. Ginny just rolled her eyes and grabbed her coat from the hooks by the wall. Harry did the same and the two walked out of the front door onto the pathway leading to a small, secluded road in Godric's Hollow. It was snowing softly and as they walked towards the road, Harry pulled Ginny in closer to keep her from getting too cold. When they reached the street, Harry stopped to look back at their home. Harry was filled with a sudden warmth as memories of his family stirred up inside him, even though his children were at Hogwarts for the holidays. It was good to have a family here with him after all that's happened.
"Are you ready to apparate?" Ginny asked, noticing his thoughtful expression.
"Yes, let's go or Hermione might actually jinx me," Harry said. Ginny laughed, knowing that Hermione probably would.
They held on to each other and Harry apparated Ginny and himself into an apparition point just outside London. It had been over fifteen years since they had ventured out into the muggle world, minus the times that they brought their children to King's Cross. The snow was falling more heavily in London and he could just make out the figure of a certain bushy-haired witch storming towards them and her tall, lanky husband trailing behind.
"Mister Harry Potter! Where in Merlin's beard have you been?" Hermione yelled. Ron stayed a safe distance behind her, obviously used to this type of encounter. "We are precisely twenty minutes away from missing the show!" Hermione was treating the four of them to a show in West End for the Christmas holidays before they traveled to the Burrow for the annual Christmas Eve feast. She had been anxious to return to the muggle world and see what had changed.
"Sorry, Hermione. Ginny was just spending so much time getting ready that I could barely drag her out of our house," Harry said with an apologetic look towards Hermione. Ginny elbowed him, but Hermione lost focus in their exchange. She was just worried about missing the show.
"Well, never mind that. We should go now or else we will miss the show," Hermione said, dragging everybody towards the city.
In London, even with their best efforts to get to the show on time, everything went wrong. The subway train somehow arrived more than ten minutes late and by the time they got off the subway, the show was only a few minutes away from starting. Hermione, now even more impatient and anxious, dragged everybody else through the heavy snow, but they only made it a few blocks before Hermione saw that it was hopeless. They had ten more blocks to go and it was snowing so heavily that they couldn't move very fast. She turned to her exhausted friends and sighed.
"I'm sorry guys. We're not going to make it in time…the show has already started and we have to walk so far. I should've planned for this weather and I wish I could use magic but there's too many muggles around," she said, her shoulders slumped in defeat.
Harry, noticing Hermione's disappointment, looked around to see if he could spot anything that might pass the time and cheer Hermione up. He knew how desperately she wanted everything to work out. Suddenly, he noticed a large bookstore with a small café across the street. If a whole store of books doesn't cheer Hermione up, then nothing will, he thought.
"Hey, Hermione? Why don't we go in that bookshop over there? It looks cozy enough and they have a café," Harry said. Hermione nodded, trying not to cry over her disappointment of missing the show.
Inside the store, everybody except for Hermione sat at a small square table in the café drying off and drinking tea. Hermione wandered off into the books with a dazed look on her face. Harry smiled to himself when he realized that he was right in bringing her to the bookstore. At the table, Ron and Harry obviously talked about Quidditch while Ginny stared off into space, only half listening to the conversation going on next to her. Suddenly, Hermione came running out of the endless rows of books, her hair wild, and her face red and sweaty. She was gasping a thin book.
"Harry…Ron…Ginny…you…have…to…see…this," Hermione said, gasping between every word.
"Blimey Hemione, did you run a mile?" Ron said.
"Oh, shut…up and…read it," Hermione said, catching her breath.
Harry took the book from her and turned it over to the cover. On the front was a picture of a red stone but it didn't hit Harry until he read the cover. When he did he gasped and handed it to Ginny who in turn looked up at Harry in disbelief. Ron reached across the table and snatched the book from Ginny's hands. As his eyes brushed the cover, his eyes widened even more. Then, he turned it over and read the synopsis on the back, his hands tightening until he reached the last line. He looked up the group of four saw the pale faces of their companions.
"Wha-wha-wh-wha?" Ron said, unable to form coherent words.
The book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.