A/N: Thanks to my faithful reviewers Sweet and Flower. One more chapter for the masses. If anyone knows how to enable anonymous viewing, I'd appreciate the tip, someone mentioned it in another one of my stories and I can't figure out how to do it for the life of me. Thanx in advance.
A/N: I tried to post this late last night but ffn wouldn't let me log in, so I'm taking the time I really don't have now to post (who am I kidding, I don't really care, work isn't going anywhere, is it?) the chapter. Hope you enjoy, get to reading…
Disclaimer: My first two initials are TN, not JK, so this isn't mine.
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"Well… I shouldn't, I mean I can't" T said but I could tell she wanted to.
"Don't be afraid" Hermione said.
"I'm not afraid." She said.
"Then what's stopping you?" Ron questioned.
"You want to know what I think?" I asked.
"Yeah of course" T said seriously.
"I- wait, what?" I stuttered.
"Of course I want to know what you think. Old Dude, Dumbledore right… Yeah Dumbledore, spoke so highly of you, why wouldn't I want to know what you think. So tell me" T said as if this was common knowledge.
"Er… right. You said you sold told Dumbledore that you just wanted to be normal right?" I said repeating her earlier words.
"Yea… your point?" T asked.
"Well you living among Muggles means that's never gonna happen. How could it, normal means to be like everybody else. So, if you want to be "normal" as bad as you think you do, then you need to live with people like you, so you can be it." I advised her.
She looked taken aback by my statement.
"Well, when you put it like that, it's kind of hard to say no, isn't it?" T said in a defeated voice.
"Excellent, so that means your going to go right?" Ron asked.
"I guess it does." She said simply.
"You won't be sorry; I mean there's tons of stuff you've never seen before." Seamus added excitedly.
"I can only imagine. So don't take this the wrong way or anything, but can you guys get out?" T asked.
"What, but you just said-" Ron started.
"No, I mean get out so I can get dressed. This is what I sleep in, my bedroom isn't really bigger than the bed it has in it, and so I have to change out here. So if you guys could leave, I'd appreciate it. And Hermione, could you stay, I wanna ask you something." T stated.
"Oh, right" Ron said as he stood. "Can I have this extra Kool-Aid then, you won't need it?" Ron asked.
"Sure. Knock yourself out. And just because I'm going on a quick visit doesn't mean I'm not coming back." T stated.
"Right, that's what they all think" Ron said as he made his way out the now open door. Seamus got up and I followed. Just before I got out the door I stopped to ask,
"Er… you're not tricking us are you? We're not going to walk out here and you never come back out with our friend are you?" I asked with a smile.
"Damn. You caught me, I was going to turn her into kool-aid" She said loudly.
I turned to see Ron stop drinking his juice pack, to see if we were serious.
"Joking" she yelled again. "And don't forget to take those spells off, just in case someone needs to get into the alley, like the trash collectors."
I closed the door and we were outside, back in the alley, and the brick wall closed itself up.
"I can't believe it, she's really gonna come with us" Seamus said happily.
"Imagine the look on her face when she sees everything. Hey Harry for once you get to be one of us" Ron said.
"One of us?" I asked confused.
"Yeah, for once you won't be the one who knows the least amount of stuff. Remember when we had to tell you stuff all the time, now you can point out stuff." Ron said.
"Yeah I remember. But I have a feeling she's going to show us a lot more than we're going to show her." I admitted.
"You sound like Hermione Harry, cheer up." Ron stated.
"What do you think they're doing anyways?" I asked.
"Probably some girly, witchy, stuff or something" Seamus replied.
"Well then, they shouldn't be too long, should they? Hermione doesn't care for any of that type of stuff, does she?" Ron replied with a smirk.
"Yeah, she should've asked you, right Ron?" Seamus said with a grin.
"Shut it Seamus." Ron retorted back.
Back inside T's home
Hermione's POV
We looked at each other. I felt slightly uncomfortable, I'll admit, what if this was a trap? But then she turned and entered a door that was in the back. She came back out a minute later with a handful of clothes.
"So, all the people I've ever seen from the magical world all wore those crazy looking cloaks, and tunics, and muumuus and whatever's. That alone, was always reason number one not to go anywhere near the place, cloaks are not my style. But now I see you guys show up and you're wearing normal clothes like me. So is there like a dress code or something, or is it like casual Saturday?" She asked.
"Oh. No there's no dress code, you can wear what you want, but magical people do wear a lot of cloaks, you get used to them after a while. I used to think it was weird too." I admitted.
"Why?" She asked me.
"Oh I'm muggle born, I mean, my parents are both Muggles, but I'm a witch, so I grew up around them and then at eleven I got my Hogwarts letter." I explained.
"Wow really. That must have been weird" She said as she started to switch out of her sweatpants and into a pair of jeans.
"More than weird really, but after the letter I felt relieved to know I wasn't the only one." I told her.
"Funny, how you got presented with the situation and felt relieved, while I on the other hand felt a burden." She said now changing shirts.
"You should talk to Harry about burdens. He grew up with Muggles too, and had to learn things a lot harder than I did." I said.
"Dumbledore mentioned it once, but I told him to skip the details about Harry's life." She said as she went to put the pile of clothes back.
"Well it's interesting really, you should have listened. I know everything Dumbledore said wasn't what you wanted to hear, but it's usually for reason." I justified.
"It's not because I- hold on" I could here water running and then the sound of gurgling. Then the unmistakable sound of spit. She was brushing her teeth. "Sorry. Not because I didn't want to hear it, but because people should tell their own stories, you know? Otherwise, how can you know if it's even true? And even then it might not be." She stated simply as she grabbed a hoodie off a chair and a bag off a desk.
"Then I suggest, you don't read something called the Daily Prophet, it's the main wizarding paper, it tends to print some stories that aren't 100 percent true." I replied.
"I'll remember that. Ok let's go, and Hermione?" she said before I opened the door.
"Yes?" I replied.
"Thanks for hanging back and not laughing at my question." She said.
"No problem, it-" I started.
"And for trying to stop your boy from being rude." She added.
"Oh." I could feel myself turning red. "I'm used to it, I try to tell him to refrain from saying anything, but we recently also told him to be more himself, he's probably confused. And what makes you think he's "my boy" as you put it?" I asked.
"Well the way you two argue. The little elbow's to the stomach. Even Harry said you two argue like that all the time. You must definitely like each other, it's cute really. Wish I had something like that, instead of just watching it in the occasional film. Why, was I wrong, is he not your boyfriend? You know he's quite cute really…" She answered.
"Yes. He is-" I said and it came out a lot harsher than I meant it too.
"Joking. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm not that type of person. But I really did appreciate the fact that you cared more for who I was, then who I could be." She stated.
"I know, I mean I knew, sorry I didn't mean to sound harsh. Don't tell Ron I told you, but I have an insanely jealous side, but I refuse to admit it to him. I can't believe I told you that." I said thoroughly shocked with myself.
"It's ok, I won't tell him. Let's go before they really do think I turned you into Kool-Aid." She said with a smile.
We opened the door and the guys were standing there talking.
"Everybody ready to go?" Ron asked eagerly.
"As ready as I'll ever be" She replied.
"I bet Ten Galleons you'll have a great time." Ron said.
"Then it's a bet" She said with a grin.
"W-What?" Ron sputtered out.
She winked at me before she spoke.
"Yeah, you said you'd bet right? Well I'll take the bet. I think I'm gonna have a miserable time. If I'm right you gotta give me ten galleons, if I have a good one, I'll give you ten galleons." She said with a smirk.
"What? But you haven't got 10 galleons." Ron blurted.
"Don't worry about that, do you accept the bet or not?" She said with knowing grin.
"Er… I- Of course I do" Ron sputtered out.
"Ok then. Let's go" She said.
I moved closer to her to see what that was about, while the guys got rid of the spells and enchantments we put on earlier. They hadn't removed them after all that time.
"What was that about? And how are you going to pay if you lose?" I whispered in her ear.
"Don't worry, now he'll be trying his hardest to show us a good time, which means he'll be on his best behavior, won't he?" She whispered back.
I smiled at the thought, Ron would make sure, just so he wouldn't lose.
"Ok, but that means you lose. How are you gonna pay him?" I whispered again.
"Which ones are Galleons?" she whispered back as she opened the bag she took off the desk.
I looked in the bag; she had Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts in the bag. As well as a bunch of Muggle money.
"Where'd you get that?" I asked almost a bit too loudly.
"Dumbledore left those funny shaped ones, and the Muggle ones are mine. I do odd jobs for the restaurant and music store, and they pay and feed me. Dumbledore always said I was welcome to the funny looking ones, but I never had need of them, did I?" She whispered back.
"Wow, ok, well the gold ones are Galleons, the silver ones are sickles, and the copper ones are Knuts. 17 Sickles to a Galleon, and 25 Knuts to a Sickle." I explained.
"Ok then, I should have enough to cover myself. Now when was the last time Ron treated you to a good time, the likes of which I'm going to make sure we have?" She asked with a grin.
"It's been a while." I admitted.
"Well, let's change that shall we?" she said with one last grin. Then she turned towards the guys. "So are we apparating then?" she asked as if she had been saying it her whole life, and not just this morning.
"Yeah, were all set. You'll have to side along apparation with one of us." Seamus responded.
"Ok, no problem." She said.
"I'll do it" Ron piped up.
"No, I don't want you to over do it you know" she said in a falsely sweet voice. "I wouldn't be comfortable with that, and I'm sure you want me to be comfortable, don't you?"
I had to smirk as I watched Ron quickly move towards me.
"Well then, Seamus I'll go with you then, since it's your crew that's been chasing me." She said taking Seamus's arm.
"Ok with me" Seamus said.
"Where should we go first then?" Ron asked.
"Hogsmeade" I said.
"Why not the Leaky Cauldron?" Harry asked.
"Because we're supposed to take her to see Dumbledore remember? We'll apparate to Hogsmeade and walk from there." I reminded them.
"Right, let's aim for right outside your brother's store. Let's go" Harry said.
Then we all disapparated to Hogsmeade
Back to Harry's POV
Hogsmeade
We appeared right in front of Fred and George's Hogsmeade branch. They took over Zonko's after the war was done. T looked a little disoriented but was ok. She started looking around and taking in the village. It was quite packed with kids.
"Blimey how could we forget, must be the first Hogsmeade weekend." Seamus said.
"What's Hogsmeade weekend?"
Ron quickly got to explaining about it.
"Wow. That sounds cool. So what should we check out first?" T asked.
"The Shrieking Shack is Excellent" Ron blurted.
"Really?" T said in a half excited, half bored voice as I noticed her give Hermione a knowing look.
"The Post Office is fascinating" Hermione said with an almost sinister smile.
"No one wants to go to the Post Office Her-" Ron started.
"Really? That sounds very interesting actually." T said with another grin.
I got the feeling these two were up to something, but Ron clearly was too busy worried about having to fork over 10 galleons to notice. My thoughts were broken by the happy voices of:
"Harry" Fred and George said happily as they stepped out of there shop.
"Hey Fred, Hey George." Everyone said except T.
"What brings you to this part of the neighborhood?" Fred asked.
"Auror business" Ron said.
I could tell Hermione was about to point out to Ron that calling T Auror business was rude, but T gave her another look.
"Auror business? Now I'm just Auror business am I?" T looked at him with what was supposed to be a mad look, but I'm pretty sure I saw her bottom lip tremble.
"No… I mean, Fred, George this is our fiend T" Ron corrected himself.
The way Hermione was beaming should be illegal in 50 countries. They were definitely up to something.
"T?" Fred said.
"Just T?" George said.
"Yes just T. So Harry meant Ron's brothers hun? Are there more of you red headed, blue eyed people roaming about, that I should be on the look out for?" T asked.
"But of course" George said.
"There are 7 of us." Fred answered.
"9 if you count our Mum and Dad." George added.
"12 if you count Charlie and Bill's kids." Ron added.
"Woah! And this is your shop? What type of shop is it?"T asked.
"A joke shop but of course." Fred replied.
"Why don't you come in, and look around." George insisted.
"Any friend of Ron's is a friend of ours." Fred told her.
"Yeah just ask Neville" George added.
"We really have to be getting to the school now; we'll stop back on the way. We really must be leaving you know?" Hermione said quickly, pushing T in the school's direction.
"Come on Hermione" George said.
"Later. Come on you guys, it'll be easier to see him now, since most students aren't in the school." Hermione reminded us.
In the end we decided she was right. We started the walk towards the castle. On the way Hermione and Ron told her about the rest of the Weasley's and warned her to be wary of anything Fred and George offer her.
I've visited the castle many times since the war ended. We all have. But I haven't spoken to Dumbledore's portrait since before the war ended. There's too much baggage there. Ron and Hermione have been trying to get me to talk to him, but no luck. And I know at least Hermione is very aware of this at the moment, it probably hasn't dawned on him yet. I think I'll just wait outside the office. I don't really have to go in. And as I see the familiar Filch on the horizon standing by the school entrance with his secrecy sensors, that's my plan: to just stay outside the room.
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So will Harry's plan work? How will she react to Dumbledore… to Hogwarts? She still doesn't know about moving portraits yet you know. And will Ron win the bet? I can tell you right now… I'm pretty sure how that will turn out, but in the mean time, I'm having fun making Ron bend over backwards to cater to someone else… I know Hermione's having fun watching. Next post should be sometime Sunday, have a great weekend.
