Disclamer: I don't own jack. Or Harry Potter.
Author's Notes: Wooo! Meaningless fluff to distract me from my real story! Yay! So, yeah, read and review. It's always good. And I promise, I am working on Sincerly, Me. But when insperation strikes, you gotta follow. And insperation struck while I was driving around with my friends last night. That's what this is based on. Yah. So. Read!
Home for the Holidays
'Mione, why don't we spend the holiday at your house for once?
As soon as I said the words, I regretted them. Don't get me wrong, I like her family and all, but she always been... a bit odd about holidays. She tended to like to spend them alone with her family, in her old neighborhood, just like a Muggle. I don't know why she does it, it's just one of the things she does. She's never really told us what she does during the trips home. In fact, I don't know much about her family besides the fact that they're Muggles.
Let's see, Hermione's family consists of a mother, father and younger sister. I'm not sure how much younger, I only just found out about this one. Her parents are both dentists, which means they like teeth. I don't quite get that one but, hey, to each their own, I guess. Little sister is a Muggle. I think she's going to the school 'Mione would have gone to, were she not the damn good witch that she is. Her parents seem... conservative. They didn't want her to fix her teeth with magic, and they value grades more than life, if her study habits are any indication. I think that's it. That's all I know about my best friend's family.
She got weird after I said that thing. She was all shut-uppy about the whole thing. I didn't really know whether she wanted us there or not. And to tell you the truth, that kindof hurt. I mean, Harry and I are supposed to be her best friends! Does she not want us to be part of her life there? I figured that was probably it, so I shut up about the whole ordeal. I figured it was over until she came up to me two weeks before Christmas break.
"Do you still want to spend the holiday with my family?" she asked in a quiet voice. "Because I talked to my mum about it, and she said she'd love to have you." She was blushing like a mad hatter, why I have no idea. The girl is just mad, probably. But I thought about the offer.
"Yeah, that would be nice," I told her with a grin. "Be able to see the acclaimed Hermione Granger in her natural habitat." I was making a joke. Really I was! And normally she would get that, but she just sort of mumbled something and walked away.
What is her problem? I mean really, is it that important for her to keep her Muggle life far far away from us? She's mad. I've said this from the beginning, and I maintain this idea today. Hermione Granger is stark raving mad!
But of course I went. I had to see what the big deal was. Harry and I both left the first day of our holiday to head into Muggle London. Her neighborhood was nice; very straight laced and picket fences. Sort of like Harry's neighborhood, except this one seemed rather inviting. And, it was closer to downtown London, so it was a bit more cool, I guess. In touch. I liked it from the moment we got there.
Her house was bigger than I had first thought. It seemed a little too big for a family of four to live there, but whatever. She motioned us in quietly and we followed her like tourists. Taking in everything we saw, trying to imagine little Hermione growing up in these halls. Her father had come to pick us up, and when we got there we were greeted by her mother and younger sister. Little girl, it seemed wasn't so little. She's about Ginny's age, so a year or so younger than her sister. That's cool. And she seemed really cool, too. Looks a lot like Hermione, only her hair is short, and she's smaller. A short version of Hermione! That's what this is! Then she spoke to us with a sweet, girly voice that would have been annoying if it didn't fit her so perfectly.
"Hi! You must be Mione's friends that I've heard so much about!" she said happily, her hair bouncing as she spoke. Too... much.... sweetness... "I'm Rosalind! It's so nice to finally meet you!" she turned to just me. "You must be Ron." I nodded and she shook my hand with a look shot at her sister, who frowned. It was then Harry's turn, and then we went to our room. Which turned out to be Hermione's room.
"I'm sorry about my sister," she said on the way up the stairs. "She gets excited easily and tends to be overly friendly. You just have to learn to deal with it, I'm afraid." We stopped at a closed door, and I saw her take a deep breath. "Well, we don't have a guest room, so you'll be staying in my room. I'll be in with Rosalind down at the end of the hall." She motioned helpfully to the younger, shorter Granger's room. Then we stood there. For a good minute before I cleared my throat. "Yes, Ronald?" she asked. I hate when she does that.
"Are you gonna let us in or what?" I asked her impatiently. Really! I wanted to see what her room was like and if I could get back at her for all those orange jokes! She nodded, slowly opening her door.
The walls were blue, I think. But that didn't really matter, as most of the walls were covered. There were Muggle posters of bands, and some other things. There were photographs and a covered corkboard full of memorabilia. There was artwork, some of it prints from famous things, some of it done locally, I guess. There was a mahogany desk in the corner covered in books, and a full two bookshelves attacked with more tomes. A matching mahogany dresser sat in the opposite corner, with more photographs in frames on it. Her bed was in the corner, covered in an old looking quilt.
"Wow," was all I could say as I looked around. She crossed her arms at me, damn her.
"I'm not exactly searching for your seal of approval, here," she said smugly, knowing that I had not thought of a good insult as of yet, damn her. "Just set your things on the bed and let's get down to supper." Harry obliged, but I took a few more moments to look around. Most of the photographs were of girls. The same three girls popped up in a lot of them. And Hermione herself, of course. Then I realized something. In a lot of the pictures, Hermione and these girls were older then eleven. Which meant that she had been carrying on this life without mention of it to us. Again there was an unwanted sting, but I got over it to go eat some of Hermione's mother's food.
After supper, the phone rang. At least, I discovered later that it was a telephone ringing. It seemed odd to me that something rang out of nowhere, but it didn't seem to bother anyone else, so I didn't say anything. That's what you do around Muggles, that's what my father never taught me. Oh well. Rosalind jumped up to answer it in the kitchen. After a moment, she called out.
"'Mione! They're one the phone! Oh, they've been calling since about three o'clock. Come and talk to them!"
She did go to talk to "them" in the kitchen where I suppose this telephone was. A minute later, she walked into the living room again, a skeptical look on her face. She walked to the front door (which I couldn't see from my seat) and opened it. Three feminine voice rang out.
"Happy Christmas!" they chorused, echoed by one girl saying "Almost." Then they were off.
"Shut up about it, Derphwad!
"No, Carrie. No I will not. You can never silence me with your big fat ugly face and attitude. So you shut your mouth before I shut it for you."
"Is that a threat? Do you wanna throw? Because we can throw down, right here, I'll take your scrawny behind!"
Then the third voice chimed in, "God, Carrie, you prude, say ass like the rest of us!"
Hermione was just laughing at all of this, shaking her head. "It's good to see you all too. I've brought my friends home with me, I've told you about them before-"
"Which ones?" the first one who spoke (Derphwad) asked.
"Harry and Ron," Hermione explained. The girls "ooh"ed in understanding. "Come in and meet them!"
They were a sight. One was tall with curly red hair that fell haphazardly down her back. Another was very petite; even smaller than Rosalind. She was Asian with black hair that framed her face. The last was blonde with plastic framed cats-eye glasses. She was average in height and build, though she was strikingly pretty. Not that I care, just thought a good description of each was helpful.
As they spoke, I attached names with faces. "I'm Daphne!" the Asian girl said. She had spoken first. Derphwad. Right, I'll pretend to understand that one for a minute. "And you are cuter then our little 'Mione let on!" I could just feel Harry blushing as his Asian-girl fetish kicked in. Damn him.
"Please excuse my friend, she has no manners whatsoever," the blond said nicely. "I'm Carrie, by the way." She was way too nice. Way too wholesome. Obviously, her red-headed friend agreed with me, because she gave her a friendly shove.
"Please excuse my friend," she mocked, "she doesn't know how to talk to boys properly. I'm Daria, the self proclaimed leader of the group, and obviously the best one, too."
They were an interesting crowd. Was that who Hermione hung out with before she met us? They didn't not seem like her kind of people at all. Not the Hermione I knew. These girls would be way too immature for her. She couldn't deal with their study habits. She would kill them. What was the world coming to!
After a bit of talking, the girls suggested driving around town for a bit. It didn't really seem like we had a choice, the way they put it, so off we went in a Muggle car. It was too small for all of us, and it wouldn't accommodate all of us like it should have. That sucked. A lot. Then they asked, "So where to, guys?" Like we knew our way around town. Hermione answered them, though.
"How about we drive around this town, let the cops chase us around?" And this caused an interesting reaction. The red head, Daria, shouted out "Name it!" and Daphne responded with "Gin Blossoms, Hey Jealousy!" And Carrie cursed. They laughed at this, and Hermione said, "Aw, too slow Taz, maybe next time!" That was just weird! Her name was nothing like that!
"I thought her name was Carrie," I pointed out. They laughed, like I had made a joke. But that time, I wasn't trying to be funny! They have a strange sense of humor, those girls. But 'Mione was the one to explain it to me.
"Her name isn't Taz, and we just call her that. Like a nickname, I guess," she said like it were the simplest thing ever. Whatever, she's mad.
"Where did that come from?" Harry asked, obviously sharing my confusion. Good lad, that one. The lot of the girls shrugged, then laughed.
"Taz is just Taz, that's the way it's been since grammar school, that just the way it is," Daphne explained. Sure, why not.
Next they put on music. Music I had never heard. But they knew all the words, obviously. And sang them loudly. Windows down and everything. We drove into the heart of London that way, then they parked at a parking deck, I think those things are called. We got out to walk around.
I hate walking so much. It must have been at least a mile all together. We went to a restaurant, kindof an American place, burgers and the like. They ate loudly. Not like they chewed noisily or anything, they just talked loudly while they ate. It was annoying. I think people were looking at us. I tried once or twice to join into the conversation, but there were way too many inside jokes, and they just talked like they had for years.
After the restaurant there was more walking. Then some driving. Finally, Hermione made a suggestion on where to go.
"I know what we can do," she said quietly, leaning forward and lowering the volume of the music. "How about we go to the top of the mountain?" The girls grinned at each other while Harry and I exchanged a look. We both knew that there were no mountains in London.
The Mountain, as it turned out, was a building in downtown London. A rather tall building. A building that Daphne's family worked in. We parked in another parking deck, then headed for the lift of the building. Our destination was the roof.
It had the most glorious view of London. It was near enough to the downtown area that we could see the big, modern buildings Muggles prided themselves on. It was also near the historic district, which added in some old world charm. It was tall enough to see pretty far, but not so tall that we couldn't see what was going on below us. It was pretty damn spectacular, if you ask me.
Everyone scattered when we reached the top. Daria and Taz went to scale a greenhouse and stargaze. Daphne walked dreamily to the far end of the building and Harry's Asian girl fetish followed her. I decided to look out over Muggle London alone. But I wasn't alone for long. Hermione came up beside me quietly, looking at the city as well. We sat like that for five minutes or so before she spoke.
"I've lived here my whole life and this city still manages to take my breath away," she said. That was true, it was a great place.
"This is a nice view," I mumbled in my oh so eloquent way. "That Daphne kid is lucky, she gets to come here all the time." She nodded. I realized then that she did need my seal of approval. But I wasn't sure I could give it to her. "So, how long have you known all of them?" I asked, testing the situation. She laughed.
"God! Since we were in diapers! They've known me all my life!" she said. Wow. That's a long time. I must have frowned, because Hermione's enthusiasm seemed to diminish.
"Why did you never mention them before?" This was it. The question that we've all been wanting to ask all night long. She just shrugged.
"I don't know. They never really seemed pertinent at Hogwarts," she tried to explain. I didn't get this. She knew that, she always knows everything, so she tried to elaborate. "Look, Hogwarts is completely different from everything I was here. And when I'm there, everything I was here seems so much less important. These girls, my friends, they're always hung up on the petty things in life. Like Parvati and Lavender. I can never really be serious with them. And you know me, it's nearly impossible for me to not be serious. When I came to Hogwarts, it was a chance for me to really be me. And I've done that. So, this life that used to be mine, it doesn't really matter. And part of me didn't want you knowing how shallow I used to be. So... well, it's time for me to start making sense." thank God for that, I wasn't following that schpeal at all. "Yes, they've known them all my life. I grew up with them. So they're my oldest friends, but I have always said that you and Harry are my best friends. You know me, the real me, better then anyone else. So shut up about it!"
"I haven't said anything!"
"Whatever. You were thinking it. I can tell. I know you, Ronald!" I hate it when she does that! But, then she smiled at me. She does it because she knows I hate it. We shared a secret smile and life got better.
When we got back to her house, she told me all about her childhood, and I told her about mine. After we were done, I didn't feel like I knew her any batter at all.
Maybe because I always knew her as well as she knows me.
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So! Fun! Ron's POV! And here's stuff: Rosalind is the name of the leading lady in Shakespeare's As You Like It, so it follows with Hermione (the leading lady in Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale) Daphne is the name of my friend, the girl this kid is based on. Most of what I wrote here was inspered by true events. Rock! And review!!!!