A/N: Every chapter will have one of these to give either a pronunciation guide or conversions out of metric or to answer any other questions we feel you may have. Feel free to review or send us any questions that aren't answered. We will do our best to answer them. -Sarah and Coleen
187.9 cm is 6'2"
7 cm is 3 inches
173 cm is 5'8"
An Eire Acadamh ar Diarocht is pronounced "on eye-er a-cad-mah r dee-ah-rah-ckt" (Thats the best we could give you. Sorry.)
For the first time in a week the sun was shining on Ottery St. Catchpole. Everyone in The Burrow was going stir crazy, including Molly Weasley who was tired of cleaning up the kitchen every time Ron made a snack, which was often.
"Out! Go out and enjoy the sunshine! I don't want to clean up the kitchen again after Ronald. Why don't you go visit Diagon Alley and have lunch." Mrs Weasley said in a hurried tone.
"Sure Mum I'd love to get out of the house for a bit." Ginny replied
"Here dear take some money with you." her mother said as she handed her a small bag of coins.
" Why does she get to carry the money?" Ron whined.
"Because dear you would spend it all on food for yourself.", his mother explained slowly. Harry, Hermione, and Ginny snickered at this very true reasoning.
One bye one the group flooed to Diagon Alley, ladies first of course. As Harry stepped into the fireplace Ron chuckled and said "I'll make sure we are at the corner of Knockturn and Diagon in time to meet up with you. Okay Harry?"
Harry just glared at Ron as he clearly said "Diagon Alley!" and disappeared in a green cloud of smoke.
Ron smiled to himself as he left the Burrow.
The foursome happily wandered a far less hectic Diagon Alley than what they usually endured when they went for school supplies. They had declined Ron's plea for food three times since they had arrived.
"But guys I'm hungry. H-U-N-G-R-E-E?" Ron whined.
Hermione let out a laugh and then said "It's a Y Ron, not two Es. But I'm ready to eat too."
Harry and Ginny had been holding each other up as they laughed. They straightened up and Ginny said "Yeah lets go eat at the pub."
"Yes!" Ron shouted jumping in the air for joy. Then he paused and asked "But why didn't we eat when I was hungry the first time? Hermione mentions it once and we go!"
"Unlike you Ronald I eat at regular intervals." Hermione replied
"Well that's not actually true, Ron eats at regular intervals too." Ginny said
"Thank you Ginny!" Ron smiles
"Regular intervals being every twenty minutes!" Harry added
"Exactly!" Ginny exclaimed as she clung to Harry as they laughed again and held each other up.
The group headed out of Flourish and Blotts where Hermione was buying yet another book. They had just reached the pub when they heard someone shouting their names.
"Harry! Hermione! Ginny! Ron!" they turned to see Seamus waving at them, accompanied by three people they didn't know.
"Hey Seamus" they all replied
"How've things been?" he asked them
"Oh you know same old, same old." Harry said
"We were just about to go into the pub to get something to eat," Hermione interjected, "You and your friends are welcome to join us."
"Oh blimey I forgot! These are me cousins. Brendan, Claire, and Kerry!"
Brendan was a boy of no more than 17 who stood at a towering 187.9 centimeters. His hair was brown, about 7 or 8 centimeters in length, his eyes a matching shade. He wasn't overtly muscular, but by no means was he scrawny.
Claire was almost a female duplicate of him. As it turns out they were twins. They had the same shade of brown eyes and hair, only her hair curly and reached to the middle of her back. She was only 173 centimeters tall, but that put her about 10 centimeters above either Hermione or Ginny.
Kerry didn't look like the other two all that much, so she must have been a cousin to them. She was about the same height as Hermione, and was probably about 16 years old. She was blonde with bright green eyes that could probably rival Harry's. There was one thing, however, that they all had in common. They all were splattered with freckles.
Once everyone was acquainted they went inside. Tom the bartender pushed a few tables together so the eight teens could sit with each other.
"So what brings you three to England? Business or pleasure?" Harry asked Seamus's cousins as they waited for their food.
"Well other than our lovely relatives," Claire said, with a sidelong glance at Seamus, "I guess you could say a bit of business,although we find it rather pleasurable."
"What sort of business?" Harry questioned. He and the others leaned closer, eager to hear the explanation.
"Well. We're here for a feis."
"A feis?"
"It's an Irish Step Dancing competition." Brendan explained.
Ron and Harry just gaped at Brendan. Dancing went against all they knew of the male gender and to say the least they thought they knew it all. Hermione and Ginny quietly reappraised the Irish teenager. He didn't look like any dancers they knew, but it was interesting enough.
"Do you dance too, Seamus?" Ginny asked, curious to know if all the Irish danced or not.
"Eh Gods no! You couldn't get me to do that if you tried." he vehemently protested.
"Okay, I get it." Ginny said, holding up her hands.
"It's sort of like a tradition in our family," Kerry added, "something you're expected to do."
"Wow." Hermione said. "do you at least like it?"
"Oh we love it! It's such a great feeling, you know, competing and winning trophies. Not a lot of wizards do it. I think there's only one wizard dance school in all of Ireland."
"So who do you compete against if there aren't that many people?" Ginny asked.
"Well," interjected Brendan, "we compete in Muggle competitions. There's nothing different about the way we dance, we just have to control the urge to confund out competition." he said with a wink. "You should come watch sometime." he added in a whisper, so only Ginny could hear.
'Aw, that's cute.' Ginny thought to herself. Brendan obviously wanted to get closer to her, but that wasn't going to happen. Seamus was her brothers friend, so dating his cousin would be weird. And Ron would flip out, but that would just be more a reason to do it. No, that wouldn't be fair to Brendan. Oh well, she would just have to let him down easy.
After talking to them for a while the group realized how much they liked Seamus's cousins. After a while, the topic of schools came up. Seamus's Irish cousins wanted to know all about Hogwarts, if it was really like how Seamus described it.
"Where do you all go to school?" Hermione asked Claire.
"Oh, we go to An Eire Acadamh ar Diarocht." she replied.
"The Ireland Academy of Magic for those of you who aren't fluent in Gaelic." Brendan added, after seeing their confused faces.
"How come you didn't go there Seamus?"
"Ah, me Dad wanted me to get a little of me English heritage." he replied
"What's it like there?" asked Harry, who was very interested.
"Well," said Kerry, "it's a lot like your school. We have mostly the same classes, teachers we like, teachers we don't like. We play Quidditch. We have beautiful grounds and really good food."
"It sounds like a really cool place to go to school."
"Yeah I couldn't imagine going anywhere else, no offense to your school."
"None taken. I doubt I could see myself anywhere other than Hogwarts." Hermione said. Just then a clock chimed three.
"Mum said to have lunch. I don't think she'd be happy if we stayed for tea." Ginny said to her brother and their friends.
"We'll see you on the train Seamus if we don't see you again this summer." Harry said
"It was wonderful meeting you." Hermione said
The two groups parted ways and headed home for the day. As Ginny and the Golden Trio flooed in, Mrs. Weasley ushered them to the kitchen for tea and biscuits.
"So how was Diagon Alley?" she asked as she placed honey and lemon on the table.
The teens looked at each other and grinned.
"We met up with Seamus Finnigan today and had lunch with him and three of his cousins from Ireland." Ron mumbled as he ate.
"That's nice Ronald, but could you please swallow before you speak?" Molly replied.
Harry, Ginny, and Hermione glanced at each other. They knew trying to get Ron to employ manners while eating was a lost cause.