Author's Note - just as a disclaimer, I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, etc. from the series. Obviously. I also do not own the game of MASH. I don't really know who does. But I will admit have played the game many times (and not just in grade school... :)

ps. yes I know, my story's taking place in the summer... and I'm looking outside and it's snowing... haha :) MERRY CHRISTMAS!

enjoy... and please review!

It was just another summer day at the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley bustled around the kitchen, causing the aroma of pumpkin pie to fill the house. Percy was in his bedroom, writing some sort of silly essay on cauldrons for Crouch, while Fred and George were plotting new pranks in the backyard. In the living room, Ron and Harry were eating lunch and discussing the possible outcome of the Quidditch World Cup.

Upstairs in Ginny's room, Hermione and Ginny were lounging around lazily, basking in the warm summer sun that was shining through the open window. Hermione had a new book, 101 Charms Every Witch Should Know, open in front of her, while Ginny merely laid on her back, gazing up at the ceiling dreamily. The room was quiet, the only sound being the rustling of the trees outside and the soft crinkle of paper every time Hermione turned a page of her book.

After a while of sitting in silence, Ginny sat up suddenly.

Hermione tore her eyes from her book and glanced over at her. "What's wrong?"

"I have a brilliant idea," the red-haired girl said enthusiastically, jumping up and running over to her desk. "I know something fun we can do."

Hermione sighed. "I'm actually quite content just reading…"

But Ginny just ignored her and began rummaging through her desk drawer for some parchment and a quill.

"Alright, so what are we doing?" Hermione asked, closing her book and sitting up. She realized that no matter what they were doing, she was stuck doing it. Ginny wasn't going to let her just read the day away.

"Well, I remembered this game that Karla taught me at school," Ginny explained, unfolding a piece of crumpled parchment and sitting down in front of Hermione. "You've probably heard of it, she says it's a common Muggle game. I absolutely love it."

"What game is it?"

"It's called… MASH."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "Ginny… you've got to be kidding me!"

"Nope," Ginny said simply, writing the letters at the top of the page. "Now give me two guys' names."

Hermione couldn't even say anything. The silly school game called MASH was more or less her worst nightmare. She couldn't believe Ginny wanted to play it. Hermione hadn't been the subject of a rip-roaring game of MASH since the second grade, before she had come to Hogwarts. She remembered sitting there in the middle of a circle of giggly second grade girls and waiting to see how her future would turn out. Would she marry Timmy or Tommy? Would she be a dentist or a vet? There were so many possibilities…

And, silly enough, like most second grade girls, she actually thought for a little while that the ridiculous game results would turn out to be true. She distinctly remembered crying all recess because she had gotten stuck marrying the school janitor. It was only after she left that giggly girl crowd did she realize that MASH was just another dumb school game.

And now here was Ginny Weasley, who was not in second grade, was not overly giggly, and was certainly not stupid enough to believe that her future rested on a game. And yet she was forcing Hermione to play. Great.

"C'mon, 'mione. Two guys. Hurry up. You get to pick two, and then I pick two. That's the way the game works."

"I know how to play," Hermione said testily. She decided to ignore Ginny and go back to reading her book.

Ginny glared at her friend. "You're no fun, Hermione. It's summer. Do you have to read right now?"

"No, I don't have to," Hermione explained, quickly flipping through until she settled upon a page explaining quick ways to cast Growth Charms. "But I enjoy reading. Besides, it's more mature than…"

"Than MASH?" Ginny said coolly. "Come on, Hermione. It's just for fun, it's not real."

"Of course it's not real!" Hermione cried. "What, do you think that I honestly believe that my entire future is going to be written on that piece of parchment?"

Ginny looked down at the piece of parchment lying in her lap. "No, but it would be awfully cool if it actually did come true."

Hermione groaned.

"Now give me two boys' names!" Ginny said. She began scribbling furiously on the parchment.

Hermione sighed. As much as she hated this game, she might as well just do it for Ginny's sake.

"Fine. Harry and Ron."

"Boy, you're creative," Ginny said, rolling her eyes and she copied this down.

"Hey! What're you doing?" Hermione leaned over Ginny's shoulder. "I never said Draco Malfoy!"

"You pick two, I pick two," Ginny explained again. "That's the way the game works. You picked two guys, Harry and Ron, and now I get to pick two."

"So you pick Malfoy and… Snape? Oh now that's just cruel."

"Hey, it's more fun if they're bad."

"I swear, if I have to marry Snape…"

"Pick a place where you'd like to get married!" Ginny said quickly, snatching her paper away from Hermione's sight.

Hermione sighed and flopped down on Ginny's bed. "Fine. Anywhere in the world?"

"Yep. Anywhere."

"Okay… how about in London, or in Rome?"

"London, Rome, got it," Ginny said, scribbling on her parchment. "Now pick two jobs."

Hermione thought hard. "An auror or some post in the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

"Oh my gosh, Hermione," Ginny said, taking a breath, her hand exhausted from writing so fast. "Do you think I can abbreviate that as DRCMC?"

"Sure," Hermione said, laughing.

"Alright, now pick your husband's job."

"Hm, okay…"

And it went on like this for a good half hour.

Hermione had to admit that playing with Ginny wasn't quite as bad as she thought it would be, or quite as bad as she remembered back in the second grade. She actually somewhat enjoyed considering possibilities for how her future would turn out. But then, of course, it came time for the results.

After Hermione gave her a number, Ginny sat and tallied everything up, giggling loudly the whole time. Hermione tried to focus on her book as she waited, but all of Ginny's laughing wasn't helping any. She was beginning to get very curious.

"Would you hurry up?" she said, laughing a little bit. "You're so slow!"

"Planning your future takes time, you know," Ginny replied, crossing out a few words. She began giggling hysterically again as she circled a word towards the bottom of the list. Hermione just rolled her eyes.

"Alright, I'm ready," Ginny said finally, clearing her throat. "Are you?"

Hermione sighed. "Let's just get it over with."

Ginny grinned, her brown eyes shining brightly. "You're going to absolutely love this."

Hermione sincerely doubted that.

"Okay, so… you're marrying Snape…"

"WHAT?!? I told you not to…"

"…on an island off the coast of Venezuela. Your maid of honor will be Moaning Myrtle and Snape's best man will be Filch. You'll be honeymooning in the Arctic."

Hermione felt like she was going to throw up, but Ginny just kept on reading.

"You're going to be the next gamekeeper at Hogwarts, while he'll be a Dragon Keeper in Romania. You'll live together with your fourteen kids and your pet Hippogriff in a shack in Mongolia. You're first born child is a boy named Mittens. Oh, and you'll ride a purple and orange Cleansweep."

There was an awkward silence.

"Wow."

"I know, right?" Ginny said, immediately doubling over in laughter. "Isn't this the funnest game on the whole entire planet?"

"Well, besides the fact that 'funnest' is not a word…"

"It's just hilarious!" Ginny cried, answering her own question. There were tears in her eyes because she was laughing so hard. "You marrying Snape! It would be perfect! I could totally see it!"

"Wow," Hermione repeated. She rolled her eyes, took a deep breath, and picked up her book again.

Ginny continued cracking up. "Mittens! Mongolia! Oh, this is too great… too great…"

"Alright, alright, that's enough already," Hermione said testily, bringing an end to her friend's giggles. "It was fun for maybe three seconds, but after that it lost its charm."

"Oh, you are just no fun, Hermione," Ginny said again, shaking her head in fake sadness while trying to suppress her laughter. "No fun. This is your future! Can't you see it?"

"No!" Hermione cried, grabbing the paper out of Ginny's hands. "I can't see it! If my life ended up like this, why, I'd rather die than marry Severus Snape! And I would never name my child Mittens! And my NEWT scores will be far too high for me to settle as just the Hogwarts gamekeeper! Ginny, this is insane!"

Ginny Weasley rolled her eyes again and leaned back against the wall. "It's just a game, Hermione. It's not real. I was just joking about it being your future. It won't turn out like that."

"Well it better not!"

"Look, I'll even prove it to you. Let's play it again."

"WHAT?!? Ginny, I thought I told you from the beginning that I hate this game!"

"No, look, I'm trying to prove something. Give me two guys' names."

Hermione groaned, but a minute later they were beginning the whole process over again.

"Alright, I'm ready," Ginny said after a long ten minutes of crossing things off and circling other things. This time she wasn't half as excited to read the results; in fact, she hadn't even uttered a giggle during her entire process of tallying the results.

"Okay, hurry," Hermione said. Ginny's lack of excitement gave her a tad bit of hope.

"It's super boring," Ginny began. "So, here's how your future will play out. You'll marry Ron…"

Hermione blushed, but Ginny was so busy reading she didn't even take notice.

"…which is super stupid because why anyone would ever want to marry him I have no idea, but anyway, you're going to marry him in the backyard of our house, and I'll be your maid of honor – oh, now that's cute! – and Ron's best man will be Harry. Of course."

Ginny paused and shook her head. "This is just too boring! It's not funny at all! It's like, actually possible that it could happen!"

"Just continue," Hermione said quickly.

Ginny glanced at her oddly but, with a sigh, continued. "You'll work for the Ministry, in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and Ron will be an Auror," Ginny brought the paper up closer to her face. "No way, an Auror? There's probably a mistake on here…"

"Oh Ginny, please," Hermione said, rolling her eyes in impatience. "Would you just finish up for goodness sakes?"

"Do I detect a hint of excitement here?"

"No," Hermione responded quickly, although even the doubted the sureness in her voice. "I just want to get back to reading my book."

"Oh, of course, I completely understand," Ginny said, nodding. "This is the most boring future ever! Do you even want me to continue?"

"Oh yes," Hermione said. "I mean… so I can just see how boring it is, you know."

Ginny gave her another strange glance, but went on. "You're going to live in a house here in England with your two children, and the first one will be a girl named Rose. Oh, now that's a cute name!"

Hermione smiled. "I love that name," she said softly. Then, snapping back into reality, she asked, "Is that it?"

"Yep," Ginny said, standing up and throwing the parchment in the trash can. "That's it. Pretty boring, huh? Well, I'll leave you to your reading. I'm going to go downstairs and see how that pumpkin pie's coming along."

"Alright, sounds good," Hermione said, watching Ginny leave the room. "I'll be down in a little while."

As soon as Ginny was gone, Hermione took one nervous glance around the room and then scurried over to the wastebasket. She dug around until she found the parchment with the second game of MASH written on it.

She smiled as she reread it, and then she carefully tucked it inside her book. Then, with a huge, happy grin on her face, she skipped out of the room and downstairs, ready for a big slice of pie.

It was one silly game of MASH that Hermione actually hoped was real.

Though of course, it was just a silly school game, played fervently by giggling girls at slumber parties who lived to find out which boy they were going to marry next. Her future wasn't written in the amusement of a chatty schoolgirl. It would probably never come true.

But then again, who knows?

Maybe it would.