Ron edged around the four beds that were crammed into his small room beneath the attic. His owl, Pig, was twittering madly about the room, as always. Ron looked over at Harry wondering if this would be a good time to tell him the news. After he and Erin had returned from visiting their parents Harry was so excited about being with her at the Quidditch World Cup (that was when Ron's parents had asked him to it). Ron sighed. "Shut up, Pig!" He said angrily to the little twerp of an owl. "Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in their room." He said trying to keep away from the Erin topic. "Percy gets to keep his room all to himself because he's got to work."
"Of course." Harry said entering the room...eventually sitting himself down wherever he was able.
Hermione set Crookshanks down on Ron's bed and sat there as well. "Here, Pig." She called to the little owl and smiled as it flew over to her. "I can't wait until we leave. I'm dying to see Erin. The summer's been too long without her." Hermione smiled softly at him and looked over at Ron.
Ron, of course went bright red, as he usually did under pressure. "Uh...uh...uh..."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you didn't tell them, Ron!" Ginny accused him with her hands on her hips and with a definite shake of her long red hair.
"Didn't tell us what, Ron?" Hermione asked suspiciously. "You only get like this when you are hiding something."
Ron swallowed. "Erin...isn't coming. She sent an owl yesterday and I didn't know how to tell you guys...She's uh, pretty busy...And Remus couldn't afford to come anyway." He hated lying to them. Erin had told him why she couldn't come, but she had asked him to cover up for her, which he had no problem doing.
"Well, I think it's just silly, you not telling them, Ron." Ginny said. "It's not like you had anything to do with it and I am sure Erin would come if she could."
Hermione looked sympathetically at Harry. And Harry's previous excitement had dropped by a good few degrees. "I'm sorry, Harry." Hermione said softly.
"It's okay, guys..." Harry said. "I was just excited to see her, that's all. I guess I'll just be forced to wait a little longer." He said.
Ron patted his best friend's shoulder. "Sorry, man, she said to tell you that she would be here if she could and that..." Ron went red all over again. "That she... seluvdya..." He mumbled, hey, he was really happy for the two of them, but geez, he didn't want to say it! He cleared his throat still bright red.
"She what?" Harry asked, looking at Ron.
If possible Ron grew even redder. "That she..." He swallowed. "That she loves you, ok! Gah!" He turned and started looking for something in his drawer.
Harry smiled to himself. Hermione laughed. "Oh honestly, Ronald!" She cried in amusement.
Ginny giggled. "You have to admit though, seeing him like this is just adorable."
Ron rounded on her. "It is not adorable! And you haven't seen those two together!" He said clearly talking about Harry and Erin. "And from what Erin has told me her parents were only a tad bit worse than you two. Here." He tossed Harry a wrapped package. "From Erin."
"A lot worse actually." Harry said with a smirk, catching the package. "What's this?" He wondered as he began to open it. Hermione sat up a little more wanting to see.
When Harry opened the package he found pictures that Erin had smuggled back from their trip. The first one showed Erin and Sirius posing with their tattoos. Erin's was on the small of her back, a blue butterfly with their names along the wings. The others were various pictures of her, Harry and the others. "What are they?" Ron asked curiously.
Harry smiled. "They're pictures...from our trip..." He said fondly looking at them.
Hermione practically leapt off Ron's bed and went over to Harry. "I want to see!" She chirped flopping down next to him and giggled. "Is that Professor Lupin?" She asked pointing.
Harry nodded. "Yeah..."
"Oh, he's changed quite a lot! Oh! Look at Erin and Sirius!"
Ginny wanted to look too, but at that moment her mother called her downstairs, she sighed and told them she would see them later. Ron glanced over Harry's shoulder looking at the pictures with them, when they reached a certain one Ron's jaw dropped. "What in the name of Merlin is Erin wearing?" Because Erin wasn't wearing much in the picture, Ron didn't know it, but Erin was wearing one of her mother's outfits. A black tube top and a black miniskirt with thigh-high black boots. "Wow..." Ron said admiring the picture...he had never seen Erin quite like that before. "Make sure Fred and George never see this... wow..."
Hermione playfully smacked him. "Pick up your jaw, Ronald." She joked even though she was maybe a twinge jealous. Harry said nothing only continued through the pile and stopped on one photograph in particular. It was of Harry and Erin, James, Lily, Xenia, Sirius, and Remus altogether. "Wow...You really do look like your dad, Harry." Hermione said.
"And Erin really looks like Sirius." Ron said noting how close the two of them seemed in the picture. "You guys must have all gotten really close...oh, I forgot Erin told me about her little run with Sirius and Remus. I can't believe she doesn't mind that Remus has no clothes on when he transforms back." Ron laughed. "Imagine knowing what a teacher looks like naked, that's a bit awkward, even when he isn't technically a teacher anymore." Ron laughed even harder. "That's just gotta be weird, imagine seeing McGonagall naked...ewww!"
Harry cringed. "Ron...let's not." He said laughing.
Hermione just rolled her eyes. "That must've been so amazing. I almost wish we had been there. It'd be so fun to meet Lupin and Sirius as their younger selves." Hermione commented.
Ron smiled. "It would..." Ron suddenly got a thought, he knew very well Hermione had been trying to guess Lupin's middle name all of last year. "Oh, Hermione, Erin told me Lupin's middle name..."He was teasing her and she knew it, but Ron couldn't help himself.
"Oh, what it is?" Hermione asked. "Oh you must tell me! Ron!" She pleaded.
"Well, let's see if I remember..." He said. "Nope, I think I need some incentive..." He joked.
"Oh, come on!" Hermione lunged towards him and tried trickling his sides playfully. Of course she could think of other forms of incentive, but after last year it was almost like Ron had went straight back to forgetting she was even a girl. It was quite depressing, but she played along, never wanting anyone to know when something like that got to her.
"JOHN!" He yelled laughing almost too hard to tell her. "It's JOHN! Now get off me, woman!"
Hermione giggled and poked him one last time before backing off. She smiled triumphantly. "John...You know he never struck me as a 'John'. I always thought it would be Joseph or something different..." She mused.
Harry smiled. "Well, Remus was different in a lot of ways during that time. Course he was real smart and studious and all, but he was terribly shy and quiet. It almost made you wonder sometimes how he and Sirius were best friends. They were so opposite." He said.
The door opened. "Will you please keep it down?" Percy asked. "I am trying to work here!" With that he slammed the door behind him.
Ron sighed. "Percy is working for the Ministry of Magic now...in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He's working on a report for standardizing cauldron thickness, because cauldron's that are a shade too thin have been leaking at a rate of almost 3 a year!" The sarcasm is Ron's voice was very evident. "He works for Mr. Crouch. He's obsessed with him! Just don't get him on the subject of his boss. All I hear is 'According to Mr. Crouch...as I was saying to Mr. Crouch...Mr. Crouch is of the opinion...Mr. Crouch was telling me...'" Ron groaned. "They'll be announcing their engagement any day now." Ron rolled his eyes.
Hermione laughed. "It can't be that bad." Harry looked at Ron knowing that it COULD be that bad.
"Come on." Ron said. "I think Mum has finished yelling at Fred and George. We can go help out for dinner. Oh, and Harry, Mum said we could get the old fire going and talk to Erin tonight if we wanted to." Ron opened the door and started out of the room. Crookshanks ran out. "No, Hermione! Stop him, he'll be after the garden gnomes again and they roughed him up enough!" Normally Ron wouldn't care, but he knew his mother would and that was enough to try to keep Crookshanks out of trouble.
"I'd be really happy to use it if she didn't mind." Harry said just as the cat ran off.
"Crookshanks, no! Come back this instant!" Hermione called in pursuit of the orange cat. Harry watched her go with a sigh.
"Not a problem." Ron said as they followed Hermione down the stairs. "Mum thinks it's sweet and she just loves Erin, she promised to keep Fred and George out of the way and Erin knows about it, so if we aren't in the fire by 8 she's going into the fire herself." Ron seemed cheerful as he said this. "Don't worry, Harry, she's just as anxious to talk to you as you are to her. We can't stay up too late though, we're waking up verrrrry early tomorrow to get to the World Cup."