Gold Beach in England is always crowded during the summer in England. Families of all types came to enjoy the salty, cool waters of the blue sea, and the hot sand. One of these families was the Weasley family. A large red-haired group of six paraded the beach. Anyone who would have seen them at a distance would say they were as common as ever, but if you got closer, you would raise an eyebrow or two at Mr. Weasley's peculiar behavior. He seemed to ogle at all of the items people brought with them.
"Molly, dear," He nudged his plump wife next to him, pointing at a yellow inflatable duck a ten year old child was holding. "What do you suppose you do with that?"
"Oh, never mind, Arthur, dear." Grumbled Mrs. Weasley, while trying to slap sunscreen on an impatient little George's face. Meanwhile, his twin, Fred, was busy tying baby Ginny up with seaweed to a nearby umbrella, despite her disapproving screams.
The only child behaving that day was little Ron, who was determined to escapes from his loud family and explore the waves he had never seen before. Setting off along the cool, wet shoreline, five year old Ron took in each little detail with his small, green eyes from a small white crab trying to carry a quarter peanut butter and jelly sandwich of kelp to a dolphin doing a back-flip out of the ocean and what seemed into the sky.
Finding a nice bamboo stick, which reminded Ron of his parents' wands, Ron tried to stay just a bit farther from the water than he had boldly ventured a little too close to earlier, resulting in being covered chest to toes in salty, sandy water. Thank goodness he was wearing his older brother Charlie's worn out, navy blue swim suit.
Jumping as each tide came closer little Ron walked on, slapping the stick importantly against his palm, then stumbling upon something he had never seen before; a dead seagull. It was kind of scary looking, but Ron's curiosity then overpowered his fear. Taking the stick, he began to poke the stomach of the weird bird, to make sure it wasn't dead. After all, how neat would it be to have seagull quill, even though he could only spell his name.
"Don't do that!" A little, yet strong and bossy voice shouted. Ron jumped, thinking at first his mother had followed him down, yet relaxed to see a small girl about his age with bushy brown hair, unusually large teeth, and a hot pink swimsuit. "It's all covered in germs and stuff. You can get really sick… even die!"
"You can't die fwom a dead biwd, silly!" Ron chuckled.
"Yes you can!" The tomped a white-sandaled foot in the sand. "My daddy said."
There was a strange silence between the two of them. Then the poke again.
"I'm Hermione."
"I'm Won."
"Won?"
"Won!"
"Do you mean, Ron?" Hermione laughed.
"Don't laugh at me!" Ron shouted, tears burning his eyes, as his face turned pinker and Hermione's swim suit. Fred and George were always picking on him because he could pronounce his "r"s yet.
The smile faded from Hermione's face.
"I'm sorry." She said. "It was rude of me… If it makes you feel any better, I can't spell my name."
"You can't?" Asked Ron, amazed.
"No… I get up to H-E-R-M, and then I get lost. I think there's a Y after it."
"Wow! Even I can spell my own name!" Laughed Ron.
"Well your name is only three letters long!" Hermione shouted. "Try eight letters!"
"That is long…" Ron agreed. "How do you say youwa name?"
"Her-my-oh-knee." Hermione said. "But you can just call me Hermy if it makes it easier."
Though they spent most of their time bickering, Ron and Hermione became good friends, and both were sad when they had to go home.
"Bye Ron!" Hermione called over her shoulder as she ran back to her parents.
"Bye, Hermy." Ron mumbled, sad his first friend was leaving.
As he trudged back to his parents, where his father was chasing the boy with the inflatable duck, and Mrs. Weasley was trying to keep Fred in time out with George rescuing him, and Ginny from eating a crab, he thought about Hermione, and wondered if she was thinking about him.
Hermione sat in the back of her parents minivan on her Dr. Barbie towel thinking about the little red-haired boy who called him Won. She smiled to herself; she could spell her name just fine.