"Ron! Wake up! You'll be late for training if you don't hurry up!" It was a yell from outside the bedroom. I roll over lazily and see that it was already 8:28.
"Oh, no." I say, looking over to Ron and start nudging him awake. "You have to leave for the ministry in half an hour." I continue to push him but he still won't wake up. Starting to get desperate, I shout "Ron! You're covered in spiders" He immediately jumps up and starts swiping his body, as if to get them off.
"Alright, now that you've finally woken up, you have half an hour to eat, shower, and get to the ministry." I say, still seeing a dazed look on his face. "Why did you yell that I was covered in spiders! Bloody Hell Hermione. I practically jumped out my skin." He says exasperated. I pull him so he's standing beside me.
"Sorry love, you weren't waking up and didn't know how else to wake you. Now go have a shower while I make you breakfast." I say, with a gentle push to his shoulders. He walks to the bathroom and I go down stairs, where Harry and Ginny were talking at the kitchen table.
"I think I'm gonna try to remove Mrs. Black from the apartment. I don't know if hearing how we are 'Blood traitors' and 'Disgusting filth' will be the easiest to live with." Says Ginny as I walk in. "Hey Hermione, would you mind helping me. You would be the one to know how to get rid of her."
I grab the bread and with a wave of my wand, turn 2 slices into toast. "Of course I'll help, gives me something to do." We continue to chat about our plans for the day while I finish making breakfast for myself and Ron.
After a few minutes he is clean and has changed into his training robes. He sits at the table with his hair reflecting the light. It still must be wet. He grins as I set a plate of food in front of him. Scarfing it down, I say "Wow, I thought that I made enough. Do you want anymore?" He shakes his head no and I start eating my own food, although I didn't give myself nearly as much as him.
"Growin' mind nee' 'ood. Ou want mee to lear' whoday w'right?" He says through a mouthful of food. Cringing, I walk over to the sink, and see that the time is already 8:54,
"Ron, get your things! You need to leave right away." I call to him, who had just finished his breakfast. He drops the plate in the sink, which makes me drop the melon I was packing into a paper bag for him. Racing up the stairs, within a few seconds he is back down. I hand him the bag as he kisses me .
"Bye 'Mione! See you for supper." and with that he left. I wash the dishes and place them back into onto their proper place, before heading into the living room. Ginny, who was also still in her pajamas, reading a book with a confused expression on her face.
"What are you reading?" I ask, since I hadn't seen her read a book with this much focus since last year when we were studying for our N.E.W.T.'s.
"Trying to find a way to remove Mrs. Black. This would be so much easier if Harry didn't throw away the elder wand. We could just wave it and she would be gone." She sighs with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She hands me the book and says "Here, you're the smart one. You know how to find information." I roll my eyes at her and take the book.
"What is this book even called? I've never seen it before." I ask, flipping it over trying to find an author or title. "It's a collection of things from The Quibbler that are supposed to actually work. I thought that we might as well try it." she says walking out of the room.
After a few minutes I see this article about 'How to Remove a Permanent Sticking Charm'. "I think I might have found something." I call to Ginny, who was in the kitchen putting on a kettle. I read from the book:
"To remove an old painting or canvas that had used a Permanent Sticking Charm, you will need to say the following Incantations in the exact order as shown on this page.
-Abiit Epoximise
-Perdere Leporem
-Dimissionis Iaciebat
These incantations will need to be said at exactly Noon. They will also need to be cast using the wand of which the original sticking charm was cast, or with another extremely powerful wand, although using the original casters wand will have a higher probability of working. And never forget to check for wrackspurts first."
Ginny looks at me with wide eyes. It's a difficult and very specific counter-spell, even for me, and I made a working polyjuice potion in my second year.
"Well I better have a shower and change. Might as well get there as soon as we can." I say Walking up the stairs to the bathroom. I have a quick shower and get changed into a fresh pair of clothes. A simple striped jumper with a pair of old jeans.
I walk down the stairs to see Ginny, who was dressed in a skirt that went to her mid-thigh and a loose purple jumper that allowed you to see a thin line of her stomach. She looked feminine and beautiful, two things that I have difficulty being.
I place my wand into my pocket and the book in a purple hand bag that Ron had bought me for my birthday (It has an undetectable extension charm of course) and say "Alright, shall we be off then? Better to be ready before noon, than be rushed." She nods and we both take a handful of floo powder. She steps into the fireplace and clearly says " Number 12, Grimmauld Place." and she is whisked off. I do the same and enter her new home.
"You must have came here yesterday." I exclaim. All the wallpaper was off the walls and the furniture was gone. Well except for the old kitchen table, which was covered in rolls of new wallpaper, paint, brushes, and a few potion bottles. The kitchen counters were transfigured from their old style to a clean marble, with white wooden cabinets.
"Where did you put all the furniture?" I ask still taking in the drastic changes. Looking through the cabinets, she answers "Upstairs, we wanted them out of the way while we redo the walls and floor."
She pulls out a kettle and places it on the stove. "What kind of tea would you like?" She asks me, pulling out an earl grey tea bag for herself. "Peppermint please." I respond, still in awe at the room.
"How much did you get completed yesterday?" I ask. The kitchen looked almost unrecognizable from the last time I saw it. "Well me and Harry were planning on moving in for quite some time. So we took down the wallpaper long before we told you. It was crazy hard taking that stuff down. We also got Kreacher to help us." She pulls out a kettle just before I get an idea.
"Kreacher that's it! Ginny, he probably knows what happened to Mrs. Black's wand. The charms says that it is more likely to work if it's use with the original casters wand! The only thing is we have no way of getting him, except for owl, which could take long past noon." With that my good idea was frozen in place.
"Well um, Hermione that's when you're wrong. See, a few days after Harry proposed, he called Kreacher and told him that I would become his new mistress." She said with a sheepish expression. I look at her in disbelief.
"Harry asked Kreacher for you to become his mistress?" I asked, amazed. It was definitely a large step in their relationship. A step at which my and Ron haven't even come close to reaching.
"Well summon him! We can ask if he knows where the wand is." I say hurriedly. We might be able to get this spell on the first try.
"Kreacher!" Ginny calls in a excited voice. Immediately there is a loud crack and a old house elf with droopy ears appeared in the kitchen. "Hello Kreacher." says Ginny with a soft smile. "Hello Mistress" responds Kreacher, who looked happy to help. Ever since he assisted us in the battle of hogwarts, Kreacher was very eager to help any of Harry's friends.
"Do you know where Walburga Black's wand is?" Ginny asked, and Kreacher quickly answered "Yes I had it in my cubby for quite a while, until Mundungus Fletcher tried to steal it, then I hid it in the attic."
"May you get it for us, please?" I ask while trying to hide my excitement. Kreacher turns and looks at Ginny, who simply nods her head to confirm that Kreacher was to listen to me. He quickly disapparated and appeared again less than a minute later.
"Kreacher thinks that this is very valuable, so would like if you did not destroy it." He asked with a small voice. "We will do nothing to intentionally harm this wand, promise." Ginny says after seeing his scared look.
I check the clock and see that it's 11:43 already. I get the book and start to mutter the incantations under my breath. It would be ideal to get it right on the very first day, but it's unlikely. This is a very complicated spell.
"Oi, Hermione. It's 11:56. Almost time to do it. Since you memorized it, I think you should perform the spell." Ginny says. I feel honoured to know that she wanted me to perform the charm, considering this is her house and all. But I'd never give up an experience to learn and try a new spell even if they are from the Quibbler.
We walk over to Mrs. Black, who was still quietly tucked behind her curtain. Ginny hands me the wand and I take it. It doesn't feel right in my hands, but it's the best way to execute the charm. It's black, cold, and bulky, nothing like my own wand. I take a couple deep breaths and try to keep calm. I have the same nervous feelings that I get before a test.
"Okay, it's 11:59. Get ready." Says Ginny, who was standing at the end of the hall, as if the painting would explode when the counter-spell is performed. I raise my wand up, going over the incantations in my head a final time. I take a deep breath in and hear "It's noon. Time to shine"
"Abiit Epoximise, Perdere Leporem, Dimissionis Iaciebat." I say slowly. A yellow mist comes from the end of my wand, floating towards the painting. Seeping into the painting, a loud crack fills the air. It's promptly followed by a crash as the painting falls through the floor. A wailing cry comes from Mrs. Black. "Filthy Mudblood took me down! How dare she! Helped by the Blood-Traitor nonetheless!"
Ginny and myself are too excited to notice the unwelcomed insults. She runs over to me and throws her arms over my shoulders in a hug. I quickly hug her back.
"You were brilliant! Oh but she is so annoying! Alright Kreacher, would you like the painting." Ginny say as a happy Kreacher comes running out of the kitchen into the hall. He just nods his head. "The only rules are that she must be out of sight from anyone except yourself, and she must be kept quiet. I don't want to hear her call us those rude names ever again."
Kreacher's lips lift up, almost forming a smile. He takes the large painting and runs back into the kitchen, most likely to put her in his cupboard. Ginny smiles at me and I return the look.
"I can't believe I did that on my first try!" I say in disbelief. She just rolls her eyes, right as the kettle starts blaring. We walk into the kitchen and have a simple lunch.
The rest of the day we put up the light grey wall paper. It would usually be a quick job, but we were unable to stop ourselves from laughing. Eventually it does get done, and we sit down on the floor with our backs leaning up against the wall.
Ginny says to me "I wonder how hard it will be to change the ceiling from this ugly colour to something that isn't totally depressing?" I think and ask "What colour would you like?" she pauses to consider my question for a moment, before saying "Just a clean white."
I aim my wand upwards and muttered under my breath and the ceiling slowly changed from the dull black, to a sharp white. "Woah Hermione. You are actually so smart, why haven't you started a career yet?"
To be completely honest, it was because the idea of choosing a career and staying with it for the rest of my life was intimidating. The year of moving from place to place everyday has changed me. I still have a bag packed with all of the necessities for the four of us ready inside of my room. I didn't want to be overly attached to one specific place, and a job would be the glue in that attachment.
"It scares me, I guess. I don't want to be stuck in one stop. The idea that I will have a job is nerve racking." I say to her, looking down at my toes. It's hard for me to admit my feelings, especially since my two best friends growing up were male.
"Well, just do something that you want to keep going with. Something to fight for." I think about it for a moment. "You have quidditch. Harry and Ron have their auror training. I don't have anything that I want to fight for." I say with a small voice.
"Well just give it a while and you will find it." She says, in a determined voice, something that mine wasn't at the moment.
Luckily we were interrupted by a loud bang. The boys were here. "Where are you?" Harry calls out from the hallway. "Here!" Ginny yells back, causing me to cover my ears and glare only half heartedly at her. Ron and Harry enter the room, looking overly exhausted.
"Woah, the place looks great!" Harry remarks, looking impressedly at the walls. He slides down the wall and pulls his arm around Ginny. Ron sits down beside me and I reach out my hand to take his, but he pulls away and places his hands on his lap, not meeting my eyes.
Luckily Harry and Ginny didn't see the awkward encounter that had just happened as they were chatting to each other. I try to talk to him, but he either didn't notice or is pretending to not notice.
The rest of the night consists of Ron avoiding me like the plague. He only talked to me when he asked me to "Pass the salt." It was torture for him to be so distant. I knew something was on his mind, but I didn't want him to feel uncomfortable in front of Harry and Ginny.
Eventually, we were standing in our bedroom getting on our pajamas in awkward silence. After debating it in my head, I decide that need to help him. "Are you alright? Is something wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm fine." He says still not making eye contact with me. I sigh deeply. "I know something's wrong, so what is it?"
"I don't wanna talk about it." He says with his voice low. "I just want to help you Ron." I say with a soothing voice.
Then he snaps and yells at me "I don't want to talk about it, so leave me alone!" He meets my eyes and I know he means it. His ears were red, and his hands were curled into fists. Feeling the tears in my eyes, I say quickly before they spill onto my cheeks, "Fine then you can sleep on the couch. Goodnight."
I walk, furious, to the bed and hide my underneath the covers. I wait until I hear the door slam before the sobs started, wracking my body. The bed feels empty without him and I cry for what feels like hours.
I must have cried myself to sleep because it's now currently pitch black out. I slowly sit up, wiping my tear stained cheeks. After a few minutes of sitting there silently, I hear a knock on the door. "Come in" I say. It must be Harry. He always seems to know when I need a cheering up.
Instead Ron walks in. Usually if we fight we don't talk to each other for a few exceptionally awkward days. I sit up straighter, not know what was about to happen. He sits on the end of the bed. I flick my wand and light up the jar beside the bed with a blue flame. With light, I now can see his eyes are puffy and red.
"Hermione, I'm sorry that I snapped at you. It shouldn't have happened. I just wanted to tell what happened at training… We were working with a boggart, nothing new, but what had happened was new. Instead of my boggart being Aragog, it was you. You were laughing at my face and saying no. No one was in the room at the time, so I lied and said it was still Aragog." He looks at his thumbs as he says this.
"What was I saying no to?" I ask, curious. He pauses, takes a breath and opens his mouth, although nothing comes out. He tries again and says in a barely audible whisper "Me asking you if you would marry me."
My heart sinks. His worst fear is of me saying no to him. I get out of bed, walk over to him, and sit on his lap. I grab his face in my hands and force him to look at me. "I love you Ronald Bilius Weasley, and bloody hell I would love to marry you."
I kiss him, trying to make the words have meaning to them. Trying to make him know how much I believe those words. He snogs me back, his arms wrapping around my waist as my fingers run through his hair.
After a few minutes of holding and snogging each other, we break apart. He gently rolls me off of him and reaches down into his bedside table. His fingers feel around a moment before he pulls out a small box. He opens it and inside is a simple gold ring. It had two small blue stones surrounding a bigger clear one. "Hermione Jean Granger, I love you too, so I think that we should show the world how much we love each other. Will you marry me?"
I nod my head, knowing words will fail me. Taking my hand, he gently slides the ring onto my left ring finger. I stare at it for a moment but look up at him. He looks nervous but excited, like myself. Under the covers, he holds me into his chest.
"Yes, I will marry you." I mutter into his collarbone. He must have heard me, because he kisses the top of my head and soon after, I'm fast asleep.
Trust me, I know how late this chapter is but I think I will start posting only on Monday's. I've started school and it's been kinda stressful and definitely busy.
**Disclaimer* I'm definitely not J.K. Rowling and none of these characters are mine.*