Hermione ran a hand nervously through her hair, leaning against the back of the chair once again. She looked up at him and faked a smile, baring all of her teeth. She opened her mouth to say something, but when nothing but her breath, which smelled like maple syrup and bacon, came out, she shut it again and continued to smile. Fred faked a smile back, and turned around to face George, and muttered something to him. George looked somewhat uncomfortable, and a little upset.
"So, I see you've been well since you left," Fred said, and Hermione crossed her arms. Not as though that was any of their business. Sure, she had been well, but really! They couldn't just barge into this restaurant and come over to them and start interrupting them… well, not their conversation, but something better. Was that anyway to treat an old, as much as it pains her to say, friend? Sure, it was public display of affection, but most people know better than to interrupt them!
"Oh, so well. I went to the Leaky Cauldron to try finding a room to stay in. Let me tell you, that place…it's not very nice anymore, no offense, Seamus. So anyways, I didn't want the only available room, and then Seamus offered me his home. It was so nice of him," I added, facing Seamus and smiling at him. "He set out a cot, I guess, and I slept, and then woke up and took a shower. Now we're out to breakfast, since Seamus thinks that he can't cook." Which was partially true, but she wasn't about to say that in front of his face.
"I see," Fred said, just as an arm linked with his. For a moment, Hermione thought it was George, and my, how strange that would've been. But then Meg stepped out from behind him, and smiled down at Hermione. She looked particularly evil this morning, her smile more like a smirk than anything else. It didn't help that she narrowed her eyes at Hermione as she met her gaze. Hermione raised her eyebrows at her, clearly confused. She thought that Meg had apologized…and they were…well, they weren't friends, but acquaintances.
"Hello, Hermione, how are you?" she asked, and then smiled at her once she looked over at Seamus. Hermione turned her head and looked at him, and he smiled at her uncomfortably. She looked back over at Meg and bared her teeth as she smiled back at her. "Fred and I go here for breakfast every morning, since it's opened. Okay, Fred, George, and I. But isn't this place just charming? And they're open all day, six to eleven. Such a marvelous place. And who's your friend again, I don't believe we've met?"
"I'm, uh, fine, thanks. This is Seamus. Uh, Seamus Finnegan," Hermione introduced, and she reached over and held out her hand to Seamus. He shook it, and she introduced herself. "This place is very nice. Very, very nice. But expensive. We were arguing over who was paying the bill. I wouldn't let him, you see. I'm just that stubborn, I guess. But still, he had taken me into his home." Meg smiled, and laughed. She slid her arm down and enlaced fingers with Fred.
Hermione looked back at George again. He still looked extremely uncomfortable, but he wasn't saying anything. Hermione reached into her pocket and pulled out about sixteen Galleons, and dropped them on the table. She stood up, looked at Seamus, and he followed her lead. She brushed crumbs off of her pants and shirt onto the floor, and smiled at Meg.
"It was wonderful to see you again, even if it has only been a couple of hours. But we must be off now," Hermione nodded, and brushed past them. She let Seamus walk ahead of her, but then paused, turning back around and looking at George and his peanut butter-free hair. He looked back at her, and she frowned. "I'm sorry, George. It was just one of my simple mistakes. I'm sorry." Fred and Meg looked at each other, and George looked down at the floor. Hermione smiled one last time at them, and then left with Seamus.
"That was kind of awkward," she said to him as they walked down the streets back to the Leaky Cauldron. "I'm sorry. I was at their house before I came to the Leaky Cauldron. I had nowhere else to go. And then something happened, and I left. I'm kind of skipping around houses… I guess. But I promise, I'll find a house today. I promise. But, will you come with me? I'm kind of unsure of where to look."
"Yeah, of course I will," Seamus agreed, and Hermione slipped her hand into his. He looked down at their hands, and back at Hermione. But she wasn't looking at him. She was looking straight ahead of them, smiling.
They were at the Muggle Real Estate building. It was small, and the ceiling was low. Seamus, who had grown considerably taller over the period of time in which Hermione was gone, was almost touching the ceiling. Hermione explained her situation to the Land Agent, and the lady at the desk, the Land Agent, nodded. She stood up from behind the desk—and no wonder the ceiling was so low, she was extremely short—and flipped through the pages of a book.
"Pick one, we will go look at it. You have a car, yes?" the Land Agent nodded, and Hermione smiled. Okay, so she didn't have a car, but Seamus did. Hey, he lived in the Muggle part of London. He needed to have a car, he couldn't just apparate everywhere. People would ask questions. Hermione nodded at the Land Agent, and she and Seamus went over to look at the pictures in the book.
"I have a bank account with money left over from my parents in it. I can't afford any thing too big, though," Hermione explained to him, and he nodded. She flipped the page, and found a house. A cute, cozy little house. She smiled, and jabbed her finger at the page. "That's the one. I needn't get anything larger than necessary. It looks perfect. We need to go look at it."
And they drove off, the Land Agent driving in her own car and leading the way. They stopped at the house…which looked just like the picture, only there was a for sale sign in the front of it. The Land Agent unlocked the front door with one of her many keys, and the went inside. It was only one floor, with a kitchen, one bedroom, a study, a living room, one bathroom, and a dining area. It was so cute, and it really was just what she wanted. She turned to the Land Agent and nodded. Buying a house was so easy!
Or not. The Land Agent made them drive all the way back to the Real Estate office, and handed Hermione a whole stack of papers. She flipped through them and sighed. Seamus smiled at her, holding back a laugh. It was not this hard in Wales. Then again, she was only renting the house, and most of the time she wasn—no, she was not going to go there. That was the past.
She must've been there for a few hours filling out those papers. Her hand hurt, and she was getting sluggish. Seamus was leaning on the table, fast asleep. Hermione smiled as she looked up at him, and then went back to the forms. God, why the hell were there that many forms? Are they trying to kill people? She still had about five more pages to go through.
But when she finished, she expected the Land Agent to say she could move in whenever, but no. That was not the case. An inspector had to be over to, well, inspect the house, and an exterminator had to go over to make sure there were no bugs crawling around. It was a fairly old house, and a lot of the old ones had termites in them. Then they had to install a refrigerator and stove for her, but that had to come out of her own money. Next the movers had to get all of her stuff from the storage place down in Wales and carry it all the way down here. Why does it take so long? She couldn't even move in for another two or three months.
She poked Seamus until he woke up, and she laughed at him. He drove them both back to his house, and she collapsed on her cot. "Good God, that took forever," she complained, and Seamus fell on the cot next to her. "Did it take that long for you when you bought this house?"
"No where near that long. But then again, you took ten minutes to fill out one page of the contract and other liability forms. I have messy handwriting, and I just wanted to get it over with. You made sure you crossed her t's and dotted your i's. You're crazy, that's what you are," he joked, and Hermione punched his arm. Okay, so maybe it was true. But really, it was more like nine minutes per page.
There was silence for a moment, and Hermione thought that Seamus had fallen asleep again, but she turned her head to look at him, and he was staring up at the ceiling… a ceiling much higher than the one at the Real Estate office. "I told you I would buy a house today, didn't I? Better today than tomorrow, I always say. If I had gone tomorrow, maybe that house wouldn't be there. And then it would take longer to find a house. Which would have meant more than two to three months before I moved in anywhere," she told him, and he stood up and looked at the clock on his wall. It was already seven o'clock at night.
"I could handle another few months," he told her, and she smiled at him. "I'm gonna go head off to bed though. This is the one day off from work I get, and I want to actually get to bed early for once, and sleep in late. Good night, Hermione." She stood up and kissed him, basically thanking him for all he had down for her so far. Because, in truth, this was the nicest thing anyone had done for her.
"Good night," she said back, and he smiled, turning around and heading into his room. Hermione dug through her suitcase and found some pajamas to wear. She kicked off her shoes and walked into the bathroom. She stripped off her clothes and slipped into her pajamas: a light pink shirt and gray pants. She folded her dirty clothes and left the bathroom. She placed the dirty clothes inside the bag in her suitcase, and crawled into her bed—her cot.
She slept, and slept, until the next morning when she awoke to the sound of Seamus fumbling through the kitchen. She got up, and looked at the clock. Eight o'clock. Sleep in late, my ass, she thought. Then again, guys couldn't sleep in as late as girls could. She got up and went into the kitchen. There was bacon again, which wasn't burnt, eggs, which looked perfect… and he had said he couldn't cook.
"You liar!" Hermione exclaimed, and he turned around to face her. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "You said you couldn't cook. You are the biggest liar I have ever met in my entire life. You sneaky little liar." He smiled at her, and she picked up a piece of bacon and bit into it. "This is amazing! You are so, so, so sneaky. You burnt everything on purpose, didn't you. Just so you could take me to that restaurant. Well, let me tell you something, mister… well… this bacon is very good."
"Ha, you can't be mad at me," Seamus laughed, and held up a fork to her lips with scrambled eggs on them. She opened her mouth, and he fed her the eggs. Those were amazing too. The little liar. "You caught me though. But hey, aren't you happy you tried that place?"
"Well, yeah, I guess. But I thought you said you had no more eggs or bacon," Hermione shrugged, and picked up another piece of bacon and ate it. She sat down in a chair and crossed her legs, looking up at him for an answer. He smiled and shrugged.
"Guess I found some more," he laughed. Hermione rolled her eyes, and took another piece of bacon. God, it was good. No one can deny the irresistible taste of bacon. Not even Hermione Granger. "Oh, by the way," Seamus added, "I went out to get the newspaper this morning, and there was a package her for you. I didn't know who it was from, but I took it in. It's on the counter over there." He pointed behind her, and she looked at the package. It was square, and not very big. Maybe the size of a Rubik's Cube, and wrapped in brown paper.
Hermione ripped the paper off, and found a cube, not a Rubik's Cube, but just a cube. She looked rotated it in her hand, and found a note taped to the side of it. She ripped it off, and unfolded it, looking at Seamus mysteriously. She read the note silently, setting the cube of the table.
Dear Hermione,
Okay, so maybe it was totally awkward at breakfast yesterday. Maybe it was a little awkward the day before yesterday. But I wanted to make it up to you. You apologized, so now I have to apologize. Yeah, I have to. I know what you're thinking. What? Why are you of all people apologizing? Because it's the right thing to do right now.
I'm sorry. There, I said it. But that's not all. I'm sorry for making you play Truth or Dare. Or Fred making you play Truth or Dare, rather. But same thing.
Anyways, I put this together as fast as I possibly could. I'm not sure if it works, because I didn't exactly test it, and I put it together, like I said, as fast as I possibly could. If it doesn't work, will you bring it make to me? I want to make sure it does work eventually.
George
Hermione reread the note, and picked the cube back up. She didn't get it. She stared at it for a moment, and then stood up. "Seamus, I have to go…go visit someone. I'll be back later," she said, and stole one last piece of bacon. "I just don't get it…"
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Author's Note: Phew, I finally finished chapter eight. Geez, now that I realize it, this might be… no, I can't tell you. Because then… I have to stop talking. Maybe I'll finish chapter nine today, and chapter ten tomorrow? Who knows? Well, I'll know, but whatever. Same thing.
I want bacon now. Sorry…
Anyways , the characters, except for Meg, belong to J.K. Rowling, as does mostly everything else except for Gryphon Leggiadre and the plot. I made up those things.
