To Keep Going

By: Hermione L. Granger

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters....yet. (Actually, I do own Jarred and Phil...woo hoo!)

A/N: So far it's short, but I like it. And nothing's happening. Give me ideas in your reivew.

Harry woke, rolled over, and sighed. Another day with the Dursley's. With much reluctince, he dragged himself out of bed, walking over to the dog calender Dudley had rejected on his birthday. Picking up his only muggle pen, another one of Dudley's rejections, he crossed out another day. Six and a half weeks until Hogwarts.

Pulling on his socks, Harry got ready to go downstairs. So far his entire summer had been a bore, not counting the haunting dreams of Cedric that is. Slowly, Harry made his way down the steps, not really caring if his hair was sticking up, or his shirt was wrinkled. Not like he had a wide varity anyway.

"Pack up boy, you're out of here," was the phrase Uncle Vernon used to welcome Harry into the kitchen. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?" he said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm.

"You heard me, those damn freaks of yours are coming to pick you up today," Uncle Vernon snapped back, "So pack it up, you're out of here in fifteen minutes."

Happiness suddenly took the place of the bordem that had become part of Harry's life. He turned, taking the steps two at a time, eager to see the Weasley's again. In less then three minutes, Harry had packed up his stuff, and was pulling his trunk down the steps, letting it bang, not carring if the Dursley's heard or not. As soon as he reached the last step, the doorbell rang. Harry's head snapped up in surprise, the Weasley's were usually late for everything. Dropping his trunk, Harry quickly opened the door.

"Hey guys, just let me..." but his voice trailed off. Much to his surprise, a gang of red heads was not standing before him. It was Hermione.

"Hey Harry!" she exclaimed, flashing her finally strait teeth at him, "We're going to Ron's in a few weeks, if that's alright. The reason Dumbledore wouldn't let you stay with them, was because he wanted you in the muggle world." She continued to talk as the two dragged the trunk out into the car.

"For some reason he just thought it'd be safer in the muggle world, although I don't know why, he, well, You-Know-Who, is killing muggles too, not really like it's much safer. But I suppose Dumbledore's got his reason's you know."

It was only then that Harry noticed that he was putting his trunk into the, well, trunk, of a very nice car. A Mercades to be exact. Harry also hadn't noticed, but there was no adult around.

"Um, Herm?" Harry asked, interupting her as she tangoned off onto Mrs. Weasley's faith in Dumbldore.

"Yes?" she replied, looking up from where she was digging in her purse.

"Uh, who's driving?" he asked.

"Me," she replied, pulling a key chain out of her purse, "Oh, honestly, I won't get us killed," she said, walking over the driver's door.

"Uh, if you say so," Harry replied quickly, hopping into the car, "But don't you have the be sixteen to drive?" he asked as he buckled his seatbelt. (A/N: K, sorry I don't know the driving age in Britian, but work with me here people.)

"Well, most people do," Hermione replied as she started the car and pulled out of the driveway, "But Mum and Daddy pulled a few strings. They can do that you know."

Just then, it occured to Harry that he had never actually asked Hermione much about her family. All he really knew was that her parents were dentists. After telling her this, Hermione kind of smiled mischivously, and explained.

"Well, they aren't just dentists. They're good dentists. And famous for that matter. I'm an only child, you guessed right about that. And thank God. But, well," Hermione started to blush, "We do have quite a bit of money. I never really wanted to mention it. I mean, Ron and all that."

"Speaking of him," Harry replied, being unusually foward, "What's been going on between you two?"

"Nothing," Hermione said blushing, "Well, nothing to speak of."

"Aw, is Hermione in love?" Harry asked in a baby voice, getting a smack from Hermione as they reached a red light.

"Shut up," she said, stepping on the gas. But she hadn't said no. The rest of the trip went mostly in small talk. Just over an hour later, they turned up a small road that weaved through the trees. It went on for quite a while, Harry was just getting ready to nod off when something came into view that took his breath away.

It was a house. No, not a house, a MANSION! Hermione said her family had quite a bit of money, but she never said they owned a house half as big as Hogwarts, if not bigger. The car slowed down as they reached the gate, and Hermione waved to the guard at the entrence, who gave her a friendly wave and opened up the door. Driving through it, to the garage, Hermione was carefully to avoid Harry's gaze.

"Damn," he finally said. Hermione didn't even take the breath to correct him, she just parked the car.

"What do you think?" she finally asked as Harry climbed out, looking around at the thirty or so cars in the garage.

"Damn," he repeated, mouth still open.

"Harry!" Hermione scolded, but with a smile.

"I've known you for almost five years, and you never mentioned this!" Harry replied, spreading his arms out. Hermione just shrugged and pulled Harry's trunk out.

"Here, I've got that miss," came a voice from behind Harry. Whipping around, Harry found that it was an older man, around the age of 75 or 80.

"I've told you Jarred," Hermione almost snapped, "Call me Hermione. I don't like all of that miss junk."

"It's my duty, miss," Jarred replied, trying to pick up Harry's large trunk.

"No Jarred, it's not," Hermione forcfully argued. Harry watched with amusment, although inchs shorter than Jarred, Hermione was obviously the one in control.

"Phil!" Hermione suddenly called out, "Phil, get your butt out here and help me with this!"

A young man around the age of 23 walked out. The first thing Harry noticed was his tan, something unusual in England. The second thing was his accent.

"Yea, what Hermi?" he asked, his voice unusually American.

"Help me," Hermione begged.

"Aw, can't get it yourself?" Phil teased, "Yo, wuzzup?" he asked Harry after finally noticing him.

"Phil!" Hermione yelled.

"Never get on her bad side," Phil muttered, hurring over to Hermione. Together they picked up the trunk, Jarred fussing about them, trying to make sure they weren't hurting themselves.

"Gramps, I'm fine, thanks for the worry," Phil huffed out. He had greatly underestimated the weight of the trunk. Not knowing what else to do, Harry followed the trio indoors.

*****

"Send Pig with a letter then!" Ginny argued, getting fed up with her brother.

"Why would I do something like that?" Ron retorted, "If Hermione wanted to talk to me, she'd owl me first."

"Give it up!" Ginny screamed, "You two aren't fooling anybody!" she yelled, slaming the door behind her.

"What?" Ron roared, "Fooling people with what? There's absolutly nothing to fool about, you don't know what your talking about!" Ron faced the closed door for a few moments longer.

"Barking mad," he muttered, turing away. Ginny didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

*****

"So you have a house, twice the size of this house in New York?" Harry asked amazed.

"Yep, " Hermione replied, knocking the ping-pong ball back towards Harry, "It was in a movie called 'Sabrina' just a few months ago."

"Cool," Harry replied, reaching to hit the ball, "Can we see it?"

"The movie or the house?"

"The movie. Well, the house too."

"Well, we could," Hermione replied with a slight grin, "But it's quite a chick flick."

"A what?" Harry asked.

"A chick flick," Hermione answered, "You know, a sappy romance." The two continued playing in silence.

"Do you think Ron would have a problem with this?" Hermoine asked, shattering the silence.

"Problem with what? Ping-pong? Probably, he's never played it before.."

"No stupid, my money. I want to invite him, Ginny, and the twins out, but I'm not sure how they'll react."

"Ginny and the twins'd be fine," Harry replied, "But your right to worry about Ron. Let me owl him first, see what he says. Most likly he'll be mad at you for not saying anything."

"True," Hemrione consinted, "Ha! Point to me!" she exclaimed as Harry missed the ball.

****

Ron-

Hey!! You won't beleive where I've been these past few weeks. Hermione's. She wanted to ask you Ginny and the twins out here for a few weeks at the beginning of August. There's just one thing-Herm's rich. Shes got these huge houses everywhere, New York, here, Paris, and Spain. They're like, half the size of Hogwarts. But they're really awesome, and I think you'd love them if you'd just gave them a chance. Plus, Herm really seems to miss you.

Harry

****

Harry-

Why didn't Hermi say something?? Did she just think that I'd attomatically curl up into a ball and die because she has a little bit more money than me?? Thanks.


I'd love to come. We'll be there on the 30th.


Ron

****

"He's coming," Harry said with a triumphet smile on his face. He help up Ron's letter, then flung it on the table next to him.

"Excellent!" Hermione exclammed, running over to pick up the letter. Harry looked at her in almost shock for a minute, then burst out laughing.

"What?" she asked, looking up from Ron's short letter.

"Excellent?" Harry asked, "What have you taken up surfing or something? Cowlabunga dudes," he laughed in a horrible Caliornian accent.

"Don't even try Mr. Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles," Hermione replied with a smile. They laughed for a moment, then both abruptly stopped together.

"This conversation," Harry began in a serious tone, "Never happened."

"Right," Hermione replied. Both turned and walked off, breaking into silent giggles after a moment.

"We've spent way to much time together!" Hermione called over her shoulder.