Games are Afoot Chapter 4
Underestimated
Ginny was in the kitchen attempting to make lunch despite the hindrance of George and Fred trying to sneak samples and get underfoot. Everytime she turned around one or the other had their hands sneaking pieces of carrot and potato from the pile of chopped vegetables she was chopping for the soup. 'Oh, this would be so much easier with magic!' she thought to herself with exasperation. 'I could just hex their bits off and be done with it!'
Hermione was reading 'Hogwarts: A History' for the umpteenth time in the lounge sitting in her royal chair that Charlie had conjured for her. She was enjoying a little solitude. As much as she adored being at the Burrow, it always took her a little time to adjust to the noise and activity level of the large family. She loved how she felt part of everything, but being an only child made it overwhelming at times. Her mind began to wander over the events of the morning. It had looked to be a dull and dreary boredom filled day, but it was turning out to be one of the best days of the summer hols so far. She still couldn't believe that no one had figured out Bill's sneaky trick for hiding. It seemed so obvious to her, but then she didn't grow up here in awe of big brothers who could do no wrong either. She remembered listening to Ron tell stories about growing up at the Burrow and how amazing it was when Bill and Charlie would come home and play with them and take them flying. Ron really loved his family and she was glad that he seemed happy she was there. After the whole Viktor fiasco, she wasn't sure he wanted to be around her much, but things had been easy between them since her arrival several days before. With that thought she returned to her reading.
Ron was heading up the stairs to get out of the twins line of fire in the kitchen because he was no stranger to the mood the twins were in and he knew well that innocent bystanders could get in trouble quickly. He made a stop by the loo and then decided to head for his room to figure out a game to play after lunch. He wished Ginny would hurry. He was starving. But, as everyone always told him, when wasn't he? He was a growing boy after all. He had reached six feet tall, but was still slender. He hoped Quidditch this year would fill him out a little. Girls seem to like blokes with broad shoulders. He suppressed a nervous roll of his stomach. "I really want to make the team!" He thought anxiously to himself.
As he neared the third floor landing, he spotted Charlie and Bill in their room. They were laughing and talking and Ron decided to stop there. He lightly knocked on the doorframe causing the other two to look up.
"Lunch ready?" Charlie asked as his stomach growled loudly.
"Not just yet. Fred and George are trying to 'help.'" Ron answered with a wink.
"God help us all!" Laughed Bill.
"What are you two doing up here?" Ron tentatively asked noticing the parchment resting on the table between the two. As he moved towards it, he saw all sorts of interesting shapes and figures. It looked like one of those abstract art things Hermione had tried to explain to him once. He didn't get the whole art thing, but some of it was pretty cool to look at. "Did you draw that Bill?"
"It's not a drawing Ron." Charlie said with at tone that implied Ron was still six. "They are runes."
"I just copied them onto parchment because my reward for Hermione, the bookworm, is a little rune riddle." Bill said smugly. "I'll even let her borrow one of my rune dictionaries to help her when she gets frustrated with it."
"Are you sure she'll need it?" Ron asked with a smirk.
"Of course she will, this is a N.E.W.T. level translation. I just thought she'd enjoy the challenge, but I am not wanting to torture the poor girl."
"You obviously underestimate Hermione and a challenge." Ron said knowingly.
Charlie and Bill just brushed him off and Bill picked up his quill and quickly finished drawing the runes. He was very pleased with himself. He rolled it up and sealed it.
"Done?" Charlie asked rhetorically.
"Yep, let's go check on lunch shall we?" Bill replied heading for the door.
The boys made their way down to the kitchen to find an exasperated Ginny trying to fend of the twins who were being very annoying. Bill and Charlie each grabbed a twin and sat them down on chairs in the kitchen with sticking charms.
"Be good. That charm doesn't wear off until after lunch, but I would consider making it permanent." Bill commented dryly.
"Anything we can do to help Gin" Charlie asked?
"Just call Hermione and I think we are ready to go." She replied.
"HEY HERMIONE! LUNCH IS READY!" Ron bellowed leaning his arm against the doorway between the kitchen and the lounge. Just as he finished, Hermione ducked under his arm and said, "No need to shout Ronald, I'm right here."
"Oh, sorry."
Hermione took a seat across from Charlie and the twins with Ron on her left, Bill on her right and Ginny settled into her mother's seat after putting the soup on the table. The conversation flowed well and soon they were done eating. Bill cleared his throat.
"Hermione, in reward of you kicking my arse in the sardine game, I have chosen to reward you with a rune riddle. May it challenge your intellect. But, I also have a dictionary ready WHEN you need it." With a flourish, Bill cleared away the plates and then handed Hermione the roll of parchment, a blank parchment and a quill. He held the dictionary tauntingly. She glanced at him with a question in her eyes. "Ah, ah, ah!" He teased. "No dictionary to start!"
Ginny elbowed him out of the way and took his seat next to Hermione. "OK, let's see this brilliant riddle then." Hermione opened the roll and looked at it for a moment.
"What do you think Gin, should I be worried?" Hermione said with a lilt in her voice.
Charlie gave Bill a questioning glance. Ginny looked over the riddle. "I think you won't lose any sleep over it." She commented dryly.
George and Fred burst into laughter and Ron just kept eating, picking at the leftover rolls. His face breaking into a knowing smirk.
Hermione picked up the quill and began to write. She paused for a moment and showed Ginny what she had. "What do you think so far?"
"It looks right to me."
"Oh come now, wouldn't you rather have an expert opinion on that translation? I mean Ginny is going to be a fourth year. I do this stuff everyday." Bill taunted lightly.
Hermione put down her quill and looked at Ginny.
"Your job must not be as hard as everyone makes it out to be then, yeah?" Ginny shot at Bill.
"What—" Bill yelped as he grabbed the translation out of Hermione and Ginny's hands. It was perfect. Not a word or connotation missed. "How on earth did you translate that in two minutes? That is a N.E.W.T. level translation! You haven't even taken your O.W.L.'s yet!"
Everyone laughed at Bill's exasperation and Ron started choking on his pumpkin juice. "I did warn you Bill." Ron finally choked out. Charlie picked the parchment out of Bill's hands and read it out loud, "This above all to thine own self be true."
"What in the name of merlin is that supposed to be?" Ron asked thinking it sounded like something Professor Trelawny would say as she gazed in her crystal ball.
"Well, Ronald, it is a famous quote from the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, although I didn't realize it had been translated into ancient runes." Hermione replied with her usual air of knowing.
"It wasn't translated INTO ancient runes, Miss Granger, everyone knows that Shakespeare borrowed generously from existing material." Bill said with authority.
"I never thought about it like that…" Hermione drifted off as her thoughts exploded with new eyes.
"How about a real challenge Bill." Ginny suggested. Maybe Charlie can find a quote or a riddle and then you, me and Hermione can go head to head and see who solves it first."
"Now, that wouldn't be very fair would it." Bill answered slightly less sure of himself than before. Truth be told he was absolutely stunned that she had figured it out at all not to mention that quickly. And the fact that Ginny seemed to understand too was overwhelming. Had Hogwarts advanced that much since he had been there?
"Ginny, I do believe he's afraid of us!" Hermione gasped with mock shock her hand to the side of her face.
"A big bad curse breaker afraid to take on a couple of school girls. I never thought I'd see the day that Bill of all people would back down from a challenge." Ginny responded with mock distress.
"Oi mate—" began Fred.
"They've just thrown down the gauntlet haven't they." Finished George.
"Ah, Bill, it's time to humble these little girls." Charlie put in.
"It's your funeral." Ron said knowingly looking right at Bill.
"Alright, I'm in. Charlie I have several books on runes upstairs on the shelf above my bed. Go pick whichever one you want and copy a riddle out three times. The dictionary will sit in the middle of the table, but you get time added for each symbol you have to look up. Agreed?"
"Agreed." The girls responded in unison.
Bill tidied up the kitchen while they waited for Charlie to come back. Ron went to retrieve the hourglass timer and Bill charmed it to count time instead of count down. Twenty minutes later, Charlie had returned with three sealed rolls of parchment, three new quills and three blank pieces of parchment. George and Fred were finally released from their sticking charms and Charlie, Ron and the twins formed a circle around the three contestants. Charlie handed out the sealed parchment. "Do Not open this until I say go." He ordered. He then passed out the quills and parchment.
"Hey Charlie," quipped George, "I think Bill has an unfair advantage."
"Of course he does, you dolt, he's a fully qualified Wizard. He has an "O" N.E.W.T. in ancient runes and he uses this stuff everyday in his work." Charlie replied looking at George like he was a neanderthal.
"Oh, but that's not what I meant." Said George with a smirk.
"What are you on about George?" Bill questioned with a scowl.
"Well, since you pointed out before that not everyone is old enough to do magic, I just thought it would the DECENT and RESPECTABLE thing to do would be to forfeit your wand for this little tete-a-tete. You know even up the playing field as it were." George responded with the slightest hint of vindictiveness.
"Hear! Hear!" Said Fred, George, and Charlie.
"It's only fair mate." Said Charlie holding out his hand for Bill's wand. "I promise not to let Fred or George near it while it is out of your possession."
Bill shrugged and handed his wand to Charlie. "As it were." He muttered as Charlie put the wand in his pocket with his own and grabbed the hourglass. He plunked it on the table.
"Ready, set, go!" Charlie shouted.
The three rapidly broke the seals on their parchments and there was nothing but silence for the first minute as three pairs of eyes quickly scanned what they had to work with. Hermione was the first to grab her quill, but then she hesitated and looked over the riddle again.
Bill was second to pick up his quill and began writing almost instantly. Ginny finally joined them but let out a scowl as she grabbed the dictionary to double check something. She slammed it shut and continued writing. For five full minutes there was no sound but the furious scribbling across parchment and exasperated sighs. Bill lay his quill down first and quickly read over his translation.
"Done." He said simply.
"Me too" added Hermione to the surprise of almost everyone in the room.
"Just a minute, I am almost there." Ginny said.
"OK. I'm done too." She finally looked up and put her quill down.
Charlie picked up her translation first. "Gin, I am impressed. This is just about right. You missed just a couple of words! But you do have a time penalty for using the dictionary so that puts you in a solid third unless one of these two bungled it royally."
The rest of the group politely applauded as Ginny took a bow.
Charlie moved on to Hermione's parchment. He scanned it and smiled. "This is correct. Bill, let's have a look at yours." Bill handed over his parchment. "Yep, it's right too. I guess that means Bill wins by about ten seconds. But still, Hermione, that was amazing."
Hermione shook Bill's hand good naturedly and smiled broadly. Bill could tell that there was something behind the smile. It almost looked like a smirk. He wondered what was up.
"Hermione, if I knew you could just about kick my brothers arses in everything I would have brought you around loads more!" Ron exclaimed dramatically. "This is the most fun I've had in ages." His comments earned him a blush from Hermione and chuckles from the rest of the room.
"So Charlie, what was this translation all about?" George requested curiously.
"It's sort of a famous quote of sorts that we have used around the dragon reserve. It says, 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.'"
"Oi Fred, we could certainly use that one! We'll have to post it so we see it everyday."
"Right mate, but I'm not sure I can stand being that close to Filch or Snape." Fred replied with a very dramatic shudder.
"Ok, Ok, School's over for the summer and I don't need lessons today! I thought we were playing games." Ron said petulantly. "Everyone grab your frog cards and meet in the living room. As long as we are playing muggle games, we might as well play poker!"