Title: Julia Lobarch Day
Author: Jenny
Date: July 16, 2005
Rating: G/K, Gen/Fluff
Spoilers: None, but I guess after Book 4. PRE BOOK 6, nothing related to HBP.
Notes: I do not own Harry/Ron/Hermione, JKR et all do, blah blah standardcakes. For fear of spoilers Friday night/Saturday morning, I wrote this little ficlet. It is probably not the only one of its type written this past week. I was inspired by a similar situational story in another fandom from years ago. This is just a little cute moment in Hogwarts.
It was late one Friday evening, and Ron, Harry and Hermione were sitting near the fireplace working on homework. Rather, Hermione was working on homework, and Ron and Harry were engrossed in a Quidditch discussion. So engrossed, in fact, that they didn't notice that Hermione was glancing at her pocketwatch every few minutes until she let out a gasp, dropped her quill and parchment, and ran up to her dormitory.
Ron and Harry were befuddled. Hermione never dropped her parchment, she always took great care to roll it up properly before putting it away. "Presentation is an essential part of earning high marks," she had tried explaining, but to no avail. Harry was pretty sure he'd get a "P" on every Potions essay no matter how tidy his parchment was. And her quill! Krum had sent her that quill, she treasured it; how dare she drop it on the floor!
They were still sitting there, dazed and confused, when Hermione calmly walked back to the common room, set the wrapped package she had brought carefully upon the table next to her, checked her watch once more, then picked up her writing right where she left off.
Ron was the first to speak. "Um... Hermione? Is everything alright?"
She looked up from her parchment. "Yes, why do you ask?"
"Well, you just..." he paused, unsure of how to explain what he had just seen. He passed. "Well, what's that thing you got there?"
"It's a present for Dobby," Hermione said, going back to work.
"It's not--"
"No, Ronald, it's not a hat. Or socks."
"Why does Dobby get a present?" asked Harry. "It's not his birthday or anything, is it?"
"No. Can't I just give Dobby a present as a thank-you for all he does around here?"
"Well, yes, but..." Harry really had no response for that, so he settled for giving Ron a confused glance and dismally went back to his essay. He had only written two words in the past twenty minutes.
The three worked silently for a little while until, at precisely the stroke of midnight, Hermione (carefully) packed away her schoolwork, picked up Dobby's gift, and walked over to the portrait entrance. But she did not leave; she merely stood there, tapping her feet impatiently and glancing at her watch.
"Um... Hermione?" Ron asked again, tentatively.
"Yes Ronald?"
"Why are you waiting impatiently just inside the entrance to the common room?"
"Because if I stood outside the entrance, I'd look plain silly."
"Yeah, because staying inside's really helping that perception," Harry muttered to Ron.
Ron tried to hide his laugh in a cough while Harry asked, "What's going on, Hermione?"
Hermione paused. "You wouldn't understand," she tried to reason with them.
"Oh come on, just tell us!"
"Yeah, we may be guys, but we're not that daft!"
Hermione pursed her lips thoughtfully, then sighed. "Oh all right. It's Julia Lobarch Day," she stated, as if that was to explain everything.
"Who?" chorused the boys.
"Julia Lobarch!" she said, exasperated. "Come on Harry, I'm surprised even you haven't heard of her!"
"How am I supposed to hear about her when I don't even know who she is?"
"Julia Lobarch is the main character of an immensely popular Muggle book series," Hermione explained, while checking her watch once more. "She's an orphan who gets adopted by these Bobbies - Muggle law enforcement - for parents, and she learns all sorts of things from them about solving crimes. She's taken that knowledge into her secondary school, and..." Upon seeing Ron and Harry's blank faces, she hurried, "But never mind. Anyway, there hasn't been a new book out in two years. Two years! And tonight is the release of the latest one! It's been publicized all over the world, there's so much secrecy about it, and it goes on sale tonight at midnight--"
"Oh yeah, I think I've heard of those!" Ron interrupted. "Dad said something about it over Christmas holiday, how so many wizards are ordering it but the Muggle post and bookstores have no idea where these strange addresses are located. He's got a mess trying to sort all that out. And then all these wizards trying to use compatators--"
"Computers," Harry corrected him.
"Yeah, use computers connected to some int-or-web--"
"Internet."
"Yeah, internet to order the books, and that complicates things even more. Dad says the book is supposed to be really good, though. That Julia character finds out that--"
"SSSHHHHH RON!" Hermione screeched at him. "Don't say anything about it!"
"Why not?"
"Because! The book comes out at midnight, and my parents went to buy one and I told them how to send it by a midnight owl. I had them address it to Dobby and asked Dobby to please deliver it immediately."
"Why?" asked Harry. "Are you going to stay up all night and read it?"
"Of course," she said simply.
"But... doesn't that defeat the purpose of waiting two years for a book? To be finished with it in merely hours?" Ron asked incredulously.
"Julia Lobarch is worth it," Hermione scoffed, and went back to checking her watch.
The boys thought of nothing more they dared ask without risk being hexed, so settled for sitting back and attempting to work. But they were tired, and it had been a long week. They must not have dozed for long when Hermione's squeals of excitement woke them. She quickly thanked Dobby, gave him his present and a kiss on one cheek, and rushed back to her chair in front of the fireplace.
And there she sat, happily engrossed in her new book, long after Harry and Ron had said goodnight.