Chapter 10

Hermione POV

Hermione,

Just got back from Fred and George's. Merlin, was it crazy. If I thought it was busy during summer, it is nothing compared to what it's like right now. I guess people are crazy about pranking people at Christmas.

Are you still enjoying the sun there in Greece? I certainly hope so; at least one of us should be having a good time! (You know I'm just teasing).

Say 'hi' to your parents and Crookshanks for me (poor little guy must be roasting).

Hope to hear from you soon.

Ginny

Hermione smiled as she finished reading the letter from Ginny, reluctant to roll it up again, and instead chose to re-read it.

"A letter from Ginny?" Her mother asked, a smile in her voice, though not looking up from her newspaper.

"Yes," Hermione replied, very matter-of-fact, but couldn't stop herself from tacking on an embarrassed laugh.

"People are going to start to wonder, what with all these owls flying in and out from our hotel room," her father joked as he sipped his coffee.

He was right; people would start to wonder soon about the owls. The fact that Pig was hooting noisily as he sat perched on the patio railing didn't help. Hermione had told him to wait until she had written a response to take back with him to the Burrow.

Ginny and Hermione had written to each other during holidays since Hermione's third year, but they had never written as much as they were now. Normally, the prefect would be concerned about arousing suspicions in the muggles, but she was simply just enjoying these letters too much. She was sure that if she wasn't so far away from England, their letters would've been even more frequent.

Hermione had written back and forth to Ron and Harry once. She had written back again, but had yet to hear back from them. She guessed that they were both with their significant others. Harry was free of the Dursleys for winter holidays and had mentioned that he would be meeting Luna's father.

Hermione got up from her chair at the patio table and went into the room she was sharing with her parents. She fished around in her enchanted book bag for a blank piece of parchment and a quill. Heading back outside to sit with her parents again, she ignored the small smiles on their faces, and began writing her response.

Dear Ginny,

Just got your owl. I hope Fred and George aren't working you too hard. I remember how busy their shop was in the summer when I went with Ron and Harry; I can only imagine what it's like now.

I'm just outside on the patio with my parents right now. It is incredibly hot here in Athens; Crookshanks is under my bed right now, trying to keep cool (he says 'hi' back, by the way).

I've been reading more of my 'Quintessence' book. I've been dying to work on my Aguamenti charm, but I have to hold off until we get back to Hogwarts. I can't wait until I can practice my magic year round and get my apparition licence.

Say 'hello' to your family for me.

By the time Pig reaches you with this letter, you won't have time to respond before I arrive, so a reply won't be necessary. See you soon.

Hermione

Rolling up the parchment and walking over to Pig, she tied the small scroll to his leg and said, "Take this back to Ginny," and off he went on his daunting journey – poor thing.

"How is Ginny?" her mother asked as she folded up her newspaper and set it down on the table.

"She's fine," Hermione blushed under her mother's mild questioning. "She's still working at her brothers' shop. She says 'hello', by the way."

Her mother smiled. "This summer you should invite Ginny over, we've never really spoken with her, just briefly at King's Crossing. Your father and I would love to meet her."

Hermione balked at the thought of Ginny coming to their home or more so her parents spending time with Ginny, certain they would embarrass her. She had actually contemplated inviting Ginny over before, but when her mother suggested it, it just seemed a bit more than a hospitable gesture, but it was an exciting idea regardless.

"Perhaps I'll invite her," Hermione responded with a hint of a smirk.

"Well, it'd save a few owls some painful journeys," her dad piped up as he grinned at his daughter who suddenly seemed very focused on eating her bowl of fruit.

Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that her parents may have clued in to this situation with Ginny - or, perhaps not. Maybe they were just being encouraging since Hermione had sort of lacked close friends most of her life, minus Harry and Ron the past few years. They were probably just pleased that she'd manage to forge a lasting friendship. Either way, Hermione decided it would be best to not linger too much on the thought.

A few days later, Hermione had arrived in Diagon Alley and walked to Weasleys' Wizards Wheezes. As she entered the shop, the chaos and energy that ran through the twins' joke shop left her in awe. This was her second time here, but it was still amazing to her. It was hard to hear her own thoughts over the loud voices of customers and random sound effects of Fred and George's various devices.

She looked around the shop searching for her favourite redhead. Though not the right redhead, she managed to spot Fred and George at the top of the stairs, talking speedily back and forth to an overwhelmed customer holding a charmed gizmo that Hermione didn't recognize. As they were preoccupied at the moment, she decided to greet them later and instead continued her slow survey of the store, still searching for Ginny. She spotted Ron along her journey, who was stocking some shelves around the corner. As he looked slightly terrified at being so high up on the ladder, she decided to not disturb him either.

Rounding a display case, Hermione's gaze fell upon the cash register and the girl who stood behind it. Hermione smiled as she was greeted with the sight of Ginny, in a dress shirt and apron, ringing through a customer's purchase. The brunette's heart swelled at the sight of the redhead who she'd missed dearly, despite them only being separated for a couple of weeks.

Hermione busied herself with examining some of the gadgets and potions that were on sale in the shop and she was still impressed by the level of magic required to create many of them. The line of customers that Ginny was helping seemed to be never-ending and Hermione sighed as she continued to look over the same products a second time.

"Maybe a bit of love potion for you?"

"We offer a range of them – depends on the effect you want or the strength you need."

Hermione whirled around, startled by the voices talking quickly in either of her ears. She didn't need to turn around though to recognize them as belonging to Fred and George.

"Not sure that you really need one, but we'd be happy to sell it to you anyway," they said in unison.

Putting on her most unimpressed look, Hermione looked at the twins. "I wasn't even looking at your love potions. Only silly girls with useless infatuations would be interested in them," she replied loftily. "Though I'm sure your potions work very well," she added in consolation. "How are you two? Business is booming, I see."

"Indeed," they replied with hearty smiles.

"Good thing we have our little siblings to do all our hard work for us," Fred replied as he nodded towards the cash register.

Hermione turned to see Ron taking over for Ginny at the cash register.

"We'll leave you two alone," George said in an exaggerated whisper. "Good to see you."

"Yeah, good to see you," Fred added as the twins walked off to go greet some other customers.

"Hey, you made it!"

Hermione spun around to end up face to face with a smiling Ginny.

"Yeah, I was just talking with your brothers," Hermione replied, a little nervous all of sudden.

"I see that," Ginny muttered as she looked in her brothers' direction. "I hope they didn't give you a hard time."

"I think it's you that they're giving a hard time, Ginny," Hermione laughed.

"Well, I'm certainly earning my minimum wage, that's for sure," the youngest Weasley replied with a sardonic grin. "Shall we go? I'm sick of this place."

"Sure thing," Hermione said.

Before departing for the Burrow, they stopped in for a while at the Leaky Cauldron, at Hermione's request. She insisted on buying Ginny a butterbeer, saying the younger witch had earned it, working during her winter holidays and all, while Hermione just sat around in the sunshine in a foreign country.

"I'm sure you studied plenty though, am I right?" Ginny had asked. "I doubt you just sat around working on your tan," she had laughed.

Hermione yielded after some ribbing, and the girls had a good time just catching up. The relaxed evening reminded Hermione a bit of when they had been in Hogsmeade a while back, until they were so rudely interrupted by Ron and the others.

After they had drained their mugs of their butterbeer, the girls flooed to the Burrow and were greeted warmly by Mrs. Weasley.

"Hermione! Oh it's so good to see you again! How was Greece, dear? Ginny didn't want to share too many details," Mrs. Weasley said as she pulled Hermione into a tight hug while narrowing her eyes at her daughter. "Oh, is that all you've had with you this whole time?" she asked as she looked at Hermione's book bag.

"Oh, not exactly," Hermione blushed as she and Ginny exchanged a glance. "The bag is charmed, it can fit pretty much anything and everything, so all my clothes, and my books are in here."

"Oh, that's magnificent!" Mrs. Weasley cooed as she examined the bag. "Very smart of you to do such a thing – I guess I shouldn't be surprised though."

"Actually, it was Ginny who did it," Hermione replied as she gave Ginny a grin, the redhead now looking away, a blush of her own on her face.

"Ginny?" Her mother questioned, obviously surprised at the revelation. "Brilliant work, Ginny! Oh thank Merlin, you really have done more than just play quidditch," she said gratefully as she threw her arms around a surprised and embarrassed Ginny.

"Yes, Mum," she mumbled. "I do happen to get good grades you know. Anyway, we should probably let Hermione get settled."

"Oh yes, of course," Mrs. Weasley smiled as she released Ginny from her embrace. "Oh, Ginny, before you go, you got two more letters while you were at work today. Honestly Ginny, I'm going to start charging for all this mail delivery," she laughed.

"Thanks, Mum," Ginny replied hurriedly as she began to go upstairs, beginning to pull Hermione with her.

"Here," Mrs. Weasley called again, as she summoned the letters and held them out for Ginny.

Muttering something under her breath, Ginny snatched the letters out of her mother's hands and walked past Hermione, beckoning her to follow.

During their journey up the flights to Ginny's room, Hermione tried to see the writing on the letters Ginny was currently clutching in her hands. Who could they be from? The letter Hermione had last sent her would've arrived a couple of days ago, so it certainly wasn't from her. And from the loopy, cursive writing that Hermione caught brief glimpses of from time to time, the letters were certainly from other girls.

Oddly enough, Hermione hadn't given much thought to other girls owling Ginny over the holidays. How much had Ginny been writing to them? Hermione felt that familiar unpleasant tension in her chest as she quickly realized that Ginny hadn't been writing to just her during this time. She felt ridiculous for being jealous about that, Ginny could write to whoever she pleased. Hermione just had this ridiculous notion that Ginny had chosen to write to her and her alone despite the redhead's busy schedule. But apparently, this wasn't true at all.

"-Hermione?"

"What?" The brunette's eyes snapped up to see Ginny giving her a scrutinizing look.

"You okay? You were in your own world for a moment there," the young Weasley replied. "You can set your stuff down now."

Sure enough, the girls had arrived in Ginny's room. Hermione was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't realized.

"I'm sorry, I'm just tired - a little bit jet lagged I think," the brunette explained.

"Jet-what?" Ginny asked as she sat down on her bed.

"Jet-lagged," Hermione explained. Sometimes she forgot that Ginny didn't fully understand the muggle world. "To get back to England we had to fly from Greece, on a plane. It takes several hours and with the time change it throws your body off its sleep schedule."

"Oh," Ginny replied. "Sounds unnecessary."

"Well," Hermione chuckled, "When you can't apparate, floo or use a port-key, flying - by plane -" she made sure to point out, "is the fastest way to travel."

"I'll take your word for it," Ginny replied. With a yawn she lay back on her bed and stretched out. "I'm tired too; I haven't been able to sleep in at all over the holidays. I lost out on a bet with Ron and he got to work evening shift and I had to work morning – it's been dreadful."

Hermione yawned as well as she took a seat on the bed that had been set up for her. "I think sleep sounds like a good thing right now. Do you have to work tomorrow?"

"No, thank Merlin. Fred and George decided to give me the rest of my holidays off. I have no idea why, Ron asked if he could get the days off too and they refused," she finished with a laugh.

"Well, that was nice of them," Hermione commented, as the twins' mysterious behaviour at the shop earlier ran through her head.

Ginny just nodded and didn't move from her spot on the bed, her arm now draped over her eyes to block out the light.

"Aren't you going to read your letters?" Hermione asked, not being able to resist the temptation as she eyed the letters Ginny had set down on her desk.

"No," Ginny shook her head, not removing her arm from across her eyes.

"Why not? What if they're important?" the brunette probed.

"They can wait," Ginny said with a small chuckle.

Hermione considered pushing further, but could see that Ginny was set on not opening the letters in her presence. Disappointed, Hermione pulled her night clothes out of her bag and went off to the bathroom to get ready for bed. When she returned from the bathroom several minutes later, she noticed that the letters had disappeared.

Ginny went off to the bathroom to get ready and Hermione racked her brain to come up with a clever way to bring up the letters again. Much to her dismay, she failed to come up with a good plan of action by the time Ginny got back.

The redhead turned off the lantern and the room grew dark. Hermione could see the girl's silhouette move over to her bed and climb in, pulling the covers up.

"I'm glad you're here, 'Mione," Ginny said sleepily. "Wake me up when you get up, okay?"

"Sure, Gin. Good night," Hermione said quietly.

"'Night."

When Hermione woke the next morning, she opened her groggy eyes to find that Ginny's bed was empty. Blinking a few more times to clear her vision, she slowly sat herself up in bed and yawned. She picked up her watch off of the night table and saw that it was around 8:30 in the morning. Odd, Ginny was never up before Hermione, especially if it was this early.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Hermione stood and walked over to her bag to gather her clothes. She walked to the bathroom and quickly changed, brushed her teeth and ran a brush through her unruly hair before heading downstairs.

As she came down the last leg of stairs, she spotted Mrs. Weasley buzzing around in the dining room, waving her wand and triggering items to begin cleaning.

"Good morning, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione smiled as she reached the bottom step, causing Mrs. Weasley to turn around.

"Oh good morning, Hermione!" She greeted warmly with a large smile. "Here, have a seat. I'll whip up some breakfast for you. Is bacon, eggs and toast alright?"

"Sounds wonderful, thank you," Hermione replied as she quietly sat down at the table.

With a pop, a plate of warm food appeared in front of her along with a cup of juice. Hermione thanked Mrs. Weasley once more and started into her food. Her eyes wandered around the room for any sign of Ginny, but came up with nothing.

"She's outside right now," the Weasley matriarch stated, having noticed Hermione's inquiring looks. "Practicing her flying, I believe. Like she needs any more, I swear, if that girl could live on the pitch, she would."

Hermione giggled softly and expressed her agreement, knowing that it wasn't too farfetched a statement.

Mrs. Weasley and Hermione engaged in small talk for a while until they were interrupted by a tapping at the window. They both looked over simultaneously, and Hermione saw an owl perched on the sill. Hermione watched curiously as Mrs. Weasley let out a brief sigh of annoyance and went over to the window to let the bird in, retrieving a letter from his beak.

"Didn't want to chase her down while she's on her broom, eh?" Mrs. Weasley said as she glanced at the owl with a smirk. "Alright, be gone, now," she shooed.

At the reference to Ginny, Hermione immediately sat to attention and her ears perked up, hoping for more details on the letter.

"Blimey, what's that girl been up to this semester? She's got all sorts of owls flying in here day in and day out," Mrs. Weasley proclaimed in a sort of displeased tone as she walked over to the table by the front door and set the letter down on top of another one.

"Oh?" Hermione asked simply, hoping her voice was one of innocent curiosity.

"Yes, it's not even 9 o'clock and that's the second letter already. The first owl from this morning, though, that poor thing's been here loads of time since Ginny's been home. Well, my dear, sorry to cut this short, but I have to go out back and deal with the gnomes. Did you need anything before I leave?"

"No, thank you, Mrs. Weasley. As soon as I'm done breakfast I'll come out and help you," Hermione offered, forcing herself to tear her eyes away from the letters on the table.

"You're too sweet. Ginny should be the one helping, not you. Well, enjoy your breakfast!"

A few moments later, Hermione heard the door close and she looked around the room, seeking out any signs of life. Hearing and seeing nothing, Hermione's curiosity won out and she rose from her seat and gingerly crossed the room to the letters. She glanced around nervously before peering closely at the letters.

Immediately, Hermione saw that the seal on the first letter had already been broken. The brunette's mind screamed at her to walk away, but she just couldn't. With another cautionary glance around the room, Hermione quickly snatched up the letter and carefully removed it from its envelope.

Hey Gin,

It's too bad we can't see each other over the next week. I miss you. I can't wait til practices start up again. Your additions to our playbook were really great. I have to think a bit more about my next one, but it's on its way. Well, just wanted to say 'hi' and let you know that I had a great time the other day. Oh, and I'll give you back your jumper next time I see you.

Take care, can't wait,

Demelza

PS – My family is having a big dinner on Friday, Mom and Dad said they'd love to have you over again. Sure you can't make it? Just kidding, I know you're busy, but if you can get away...okay, bye for real this time. Xoxo

Hermione hardly noticed that her eyes were straining to read the letter, as her hands were vibrating with rage. She wanted to rip the letter up, pull out her wand and set the fragments of the message on fire. She felt so betrayed. The thought of Demelza and Ginny being together had obviously crossed Hermione's mind, but to see proof of it was just too much.

The brunette hurriedly tucked the letter away and put it back in its original spot, wanting to physically disconnect herself from it as if that could erase the hurt. She laughed bitterly at herself. For a moment there she actually thought that Ginny might like her. In fact, she had almost convinced herself that it'd be worth a shot, that this whole 'Ginny's not your type. Ginny won't be happy, she won't stay' stuff was nonsense, but apparently her first instincts had been right. Ron had been right, Harry, the team, everyone had been right. Ginny and Demelza. It had a nice ring to it, didn't it? Nothing like Ginny and Hermione. Nothing went well with 'Hermione'.

The brunette didn't know what to do with herself. She absently walked over to the dining table again and sat down untidily on one of the chairs, slouching sideways against the back of it. She was staring blankly across the room, her mind busy with thoughts, when the front door slammed and jerked her out of her trance.

"Hey, you're up," Ginny called from the front door.

Hermione slowly turned in the direction of Ginny's voice and took in the sight of the redhead walking towards her, her cheeks rosy, hair a little unkempt and a smile on her face.

"Are you okay?" Ginny asked as her smile suddenly faded away. "Are you sick?" She asked as she reached forward to touch Hermione's forehead with the back of her hand.

Instinctively, Hermione jerked away to avoid Ginny's touch and was glaring up at her before she even realized it.

"What-what's wrong?" The younger girl asked, taking an unsure step back.

Hermione sighed heavily before responding, "I'm fine. Just didn't sleep well."

"Oh..." Ginny looked unconvinced. "Well, feel free to go back to sleep. And we don't have to do anything major today, we can just take it easy."

"Yeah, I might," Hermione responded blandly. "What's that?" She asked as she nodded towards a piece of paper that Ginny was holding.

"Oh," Ginny said as she looked down at the paper and held it up momentarily. "Just a play I'm working on. I'm kind of working on a playbook," she finished with a light blush.

Hermione indulged Ginny with a small smile before standing and staring the redhead in the eyes for a few moments, the other girl visibly confused by this exchange. Breaking their eye contact, Hermione turned and began to head for the stairs.

"Oh," Hermione said as she turned to look at Ginny before ascending the stairs, "a letter arrived for you."

Ginny turned to look at the front table and strode over, quickly glancing at the new letter before picking up both letters and tucking them into the drawer. Hermione tried to reduce the severity of the scrutinizing gaze she must have been giving the redhead, but she doubted that she was successful.

"Just Demelza and Hannah," Ginny announced casually with a shrug.

"Mm," Hermione nodded. "Well, I'm going to try to get some shut eye. See you later, Gin."

By the time Hermione had climbed the plentiful stairs to Ginny's room, she was barely able to contain her tears and sniffles. She collapsed on the bed and buried her face in her pillow to muffle the sobs the followed.

Over the remaining days of their break, Ginny had continued to receive numerous letters. Hermione couldn't help but feel hurt each time an owl swooped in and dropped a letter in Ginny's lap.

While the brunette never caught Ginny writing back, she imagined that the popular redhead must have written back at some point or else the owls would have stopped eventually. The fact that Ginny was being so secretive about these letters caused Hermione to be more and more suspicious.

The giddiness that Hermione had felt prior about the letters exchanged between Ginny and herself was as good as gone by the time their return to Hogwarts was upon them. All the hope that had begun to mount inside of her dissolved as the bone-crushing reality of their situation glared harshly before Hermione's eyes.

"Sorry you had to leave your family for this," Ginny said glumly as they were packing.

"What?" Hermione said as she was pulled from her thoughts.

"You've obviously had a miserable time here. I'm sorry your holidays ended on a bad note, I shouldn't have asked you to come here," she said.

Even though Hermione knew that Ginny didn't mean the words the way they came out, she felt upset by the words nonetheless.

"Well I'm sorry my mood has brought you down, Ginny. Perhaps you'll invite better company next time around," she offered without so much as a glance towards Ginny.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," the redhead replied hotly. Receiving no reply from Hermione, she continued on. "So, what has you so upset?"

"What else? My studies," Hermione replied with an exasperated sigh. The brunette's anger flared as she saw Ginny rolling her eyes. Hermione hurriedly closed her bag and headed downstairs.

"Are you ready?" Mrs. Weasley asked when she spotted Hermione coming down the stairs. "Is Ginny with you?"

"I'm ready," the sixth year responded, ridding her voice of the irritation she was feeling at even being in the same house as Ginny. "I believe Ginny's nearly ready."

"Ginny, dear, hurry up," her mother bellowed up the stairs.

A few moments later, Ginny came jogging down the stairs. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Merlin..."

The two girls hardly looked at each other the entire trip to Hogwarts, aided in particular by Hermione confining herself in the prefect cabin once on the train and refusing to leave.

When they arrived at Hogsmeade Station, Hermione wordlessly grabbed her bag and got off the train. The cabin that Ginny had been in was a few cars down from the prefect one and Hermione made a point of walking past its part of the platform, berating herself for her weakness all the while.

Through the sea of black robes, she spotted a familiar redheaded female walking along the platform towards the carriages. She was with Harry, Luna, Colin, and Demelza again. Hermione's breath caught in anger at seeing the two walk closely together.

Hermione let out a shuddering sigh. The highs and lows of this non-relationship were so unfamiliar and it scared her. It was frightening that someone else had so much control over her emotions and that person wasn't even interested in her.

"Hey Hermione, let's go. The carriages are leaving," Ron interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh, right, yes," Hermione agreed awkwardly as they climbed into a carriage with a few other sixth years.

The brunette was quiet the rest of the evening and retreated to her dorm early in an effort to sleep off her tempestuous mood, but anticipated failure. With a self-deprecating grin she fell asleep realizing that if she had to fight off a boggart again, it most certainly wouldn't appear in the form of a failing grade any longer.

AN: As they say, 'One step forward, two steps back'. Thanks again for the responses and for keeping up with this winding journey. Next chapter is going to be a big one...