Chapter 2
For VampLuver1998 whose kind review spurred me on to post this next chapter.
She held out for 5 minutes exactly.
"So how was your holiday with your parents? Was it really as boring as your letters made it sound?" asked Ginny teasingly.
"Ginny," Hermione admonished, "just because you don't have any appreciation of the legacy of the past doesn't make it boring. Did you know that Camille Desmoulins was actually a wizard? And he led the storming of the Bastille with…."
She broke off at this point as her companion had started pretending to snore. Hermione laughingly shoved her saying "Fine, now you'll never know!" Ginny opened her eyes grinning, "But weren't you staying at one of those muggle holiday resorts? I'd heard from Sally Rogers that they can be crazy. She said there were loads of people her age and she met some pretty fit guys too." At this she waggled her eyebrows suggestively at Hermione, looking rather like Fred and George in that moment.
At Hermione's deep blush, Ginny shrieked "I knew it! You met someone didn't you? Tell me everything!"
"There's nothing to tell," said Hermione in her most prim and proper voice. She tried to change the subject but Ginny persisted.
In exasperation Hermione through her hands up in the air, "Fine, but you have to promise not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you!"
Ginny rolled her eyes and said "Duh" holding out her baby finger to make a pinky promise. She then gestured for her to continue. Hermione looked at her watch and saw she'd held out for 5 minutes before caving. A new record, she thought wryly.
"Ok," she said nervously, "So yes, there were a lot of people my age and I may have ended up spending a lot of my time with them. There was one main group really, mainly guys and they were always so rowdy and continually disturbing my peace when I was reading."
At this Ginny rolled her eyes again, "And…" she prompted. Hermione took a steadying breath. This was her secret romance, her first romance really and although part of her wanted to keep it a secret, there was another part that was dying to blurt it all out to Ginny. She'd found in through their friendship that there was something extremely satisfying about sharing your crushes with your friend, in order to analyse each and every single detail together. She smiled to herself as she thought of all the many details she had to share.
"And!" said Ginny impatiently.
"So one day," Hermione continued, "I was sitting by the pool reading and a whole lot of them arrived and started messing around with a beach ball in the water. I tried to ignore their shrieks and continue reading my very fascinating novel on the French Revolution, but next thing I knew my book was knocked out of my hand as I was hit right in the face with the beach ball." Ginny winced sympathetically.
"I was feeling slightly disorientated but was about to get up and give them a piece of my mind when one of them leapt out of the pool. His friends started to wolf whistle which completely mortified me but which he completely ignored." She blushed now at the memory of that first meeting. The wolf whistles had stopped her tirade before she'd even begun, especially as she'd been confronted with a shirtless, dripping wet, rather attractive guy, walking towards her.
"Hermione Jean Granger if you don't finish this story right now I will throttle you!" Ginny's angry tones brought her back to the room.
"Sorry" she said sheepishly, "So this guy comes right up to me, completely invading my personal space I might add, takes my hand in his, touches my head and says in broken English, 'You are hurt, no?' while gazing deeply into my eyes!" She said all this rather quickly and slightly breathlessly.
"Be still my beating heart," said Ginny, dramatically swooning. Hermione threw a pillow at her but she had to admit to herself that it had been rather romantic. After simply gazing back at the guy for a moment or two, like a hapless fool, she had then tucked her hair behind her ear and simply shook her head. She decided to continue with her story before Ginny threw the pillow back at her.
"He then insisted I join him and his friends that night for a campfire. He told me he would toast me many marshmallows to make up for that fact I'd been hit in the face. Although he didn't know the word for marshmallows, I eventually worked out the gist" she grinned now as she remembered him gesticulating wildly to try and get her to understand."He called for me at our villa to make sure I came and I ended up having the best night. I spent the rest of the holiday hanging out with him and his friends."
Ginny had shrieked at this point and Hermione had shushed her. "Ok, I have a million questions! What's his name? Did he kiss you? Will you see him again?"
Laughingly Hermione replied "Well his name is Viktor and he's a muggle so unless he happens to be at the same holiday camp next year, I doubt I'll ever see him again." At this her smile faltered. It had been a two week summer romance and she'd loved every minute of it, except for when it came to say goodbye. His English wasn't great but they seemed to be able to communicate without too many words. She ended up having so much fun with Viktor and his friends, something she admitted to herself she hadn't been able to have much of during her past year at Hogwarts. Taking far too many classes combined with the terrifying encounter with Sirius Black had meant it had been one stressful year. When Viktor had invited her to come to the campfire she had decided to accept as part of her vow to let herself unwind and just be a teenager for once.
"Don't think I didn't notice you didn't answer one of my questions" Ginny said sternly, jolting Hermione out of her thoughts, "Did you kiss him?" Hermione couldn't stop the huge smile that lit up her face and Ginny shrieked so loudly this time that Percy came bursting through the door.
"What is all this shrieking Ginevra? Are you alright?"
Ginny made a face at being called by her full name, "Yes Percival, I'm fine thank-you, eh, I just thought I saw a spider."
At this Ron, who had been walking past poked his head in and looking rather pale said, "A spider? Blimey Ginny well did you catch it?" His eyes darted around the room in a frantic search for the creature.
Percy, with his nose in the air haughtily remarked "Well since your life isn't in fact in danger I will be getting back to my very important report I'm writing for Mr Crouch. I'm sure Ginevra has informed you Hermione of how I'm practically his right hand man." He puffed out his chest as he spoke just as Fred and George piled into Ginny's rather small room.
The girls were sitting on the bed and suddenly found themselves dwarfed by the four wizards towering over them. "Perce, of course Hermione's heard, she does after all read the Daily Prophet" said George.
Percy looked at him warily as Fred said "Front page headline last month- 'Ministry of Magic Employee gets head stuck up his bosses ass.'" Everyone save for Percy and Hermione laughed aloud at this, but Ginny could see that Hermione had covered her mouth with her hand as she was clearly trying her hardest not to smile.
"Well" huffed Percy, and he stormed out of the room.
"So what were you two witches shrieking about then? Excited about the Quidditch World Cup final?" asked Fred.
"We thought we saw a spider" said a straight faced Ginny.
"Fine keep your secrets for now" said George, in what he considered a threatening tone, to which Ginny looked completely unfazed. Hermione was feeling rather flustered and so had picked up the nearest book and was pretending to read it. It just so happened to be a 'Cauldron Full of Love' by Celestina Warbeck's autobiography.
Sensing her friend's discomfort, Ginny enquired "Can you smell something burning?" and she sniffed the air with a puzzled expression on her face. "Damn in, that'll be our potion. I told you George to keep an eye on the time" and with that the twins rushed out to run to their room, or as they'd taken to calling it their 'Diabolical Laboratory of Creative Genius.' Ron, still casting his eyes around the room for spiders followed them out. As soon as he was gone both girls looked at each other and burst out laughing.
