The threesome made their way to the infirmary, Harry holding the door open and following the girls inside. What they saw made all three stop short. Neville, Luna, and Dean were there. Ron was there as well. Sitting next to Ron, however, was Lavender Brown. What sounded very nearly like a low growl emanated from Hermione, and she muttered, "I don't believe it." Ginny stared at her brother as if she'd like to do nothing better than smack him, perhaps with a chair, perhaps with Lavender. Harry himself had never been more irritated with Ron's relationship than at this moment, though he took great pains to hide it as he crooked his finger toward Ron in a very McGonagle-ish fashion. "Can I talk to you?"
"Yeah." Ron stood up, walking as quickly as possible past Hermione and Ginny, fully aware of what both women looked like before they got violent.
Once they were on the other side of the infirmary door, Ron immediately rushed into an explanation. "Look, mate, this was not my idea. She asked to have dinner together today in class and without thinking I said yes. I didn't even remember until I showed up here and she was waiting for me. I don't know how she even knew where I'd be."
This explanation eased the urge Harry had to pummel some sense into Ron. Relaxing, he replied, "Understandable, but she needs to go."
"She already here, couldn't she just –"
"No, Ron. 'She couldn't just.' Ginny's had a rough enough day today without feeling gawked at."
"What happened today?" asked Ron, a worried look crossing his face.
"Difficult subject matter is getting tackled."
Ron looked like he wanted to ask more, so Harry simply said, "Chamber of Secrets."
That quickly gave Ron a look of intimate understanding. He simply nodded, and then gave the door a look as if the last thing he wanted to do was to have to walk through it.
Harry rolled his eyes. "You're in Gryffindor, mate. The Sorting Hat says you can handle saying no to your girlfriend."
"I always said that hat was crazy." Ron muttered.
When the two boys passed through the doors, however, they were surprised as Lavender turned to them excitedly and started gushing about how welcoming Ginny was being. Harry threw a questioning look at Ginny, who did have a smile plastered to her face like freshly painted fresco. Hermione still looked as grumpy as ever, but Harry supposed that was simply par for the course when it came to dealing with Ron and Lavender. Dean and Neville were both squirming uncomfortably in their chairs. Really, it was only the ever-adaptable Luna who looked fully herself.
"You should both sit down, Ginny started a game of musical plates. Daddy and I always try to play, but it gets quite boring with only two people." Luna proclaimed cheerily. Although, there was even something about her voice which seemed mismatched to the lighthearted declaration.
It was only then that Harry and Ron looked down and realized that instead of the full tray of food which should have been in front of Ginny, she had the slim pickings Lavender had chosen for herself, which were mainly vegetables with a small serving of salmon. Harry didn't say anything, he just gazed at Ginny in a very disappointed and hurt way. She purposefully avoided his gaze.
Ron, on the other hand, boldly went up to table and grabbed the full tray that was sitting in front of Lavender.
"Ronnie-kins, what are you doing? Ginny said I could have her stuffing."
"Be right back."
In what seemed an instant, Madam Pomfrey was back with Ron, carrying a duplicate tray of food and setting it in front of Ginny once she vanished the sparse meal sitting in front of her.
"Now you can both have it." Ron said, sounding fully satisfied with himself. Having grown up in the Weasley household alongside Fred and George, he had learned to recognize when people were manipulating circumstances to their benefit. He knew full well that his sister knew that no one was going to embarrass her in front of Lavender by swapping their plates back. He thought that by giving them the same thing, he was outsmarting Ginny while still keeping up the appearance that Ginny was welcoming Lavender. He hoped that by giving them the same thing to eat, somehow she'd be comforted.
As it was, he was forgetting that he is Ron Weasley, King of Things Which Backfire Horribly.
The mood started out okay, except perhaps Ginny giving her brother the evil eye whenever she was sure that Lavender wouldn't see. Everyone else had relaxed, however, once Ginny's tray had been placed in front of her again. But one by one they all began to notice, the strange competition that began to occur between the two girls. Ginny had noticed that Lavender was only taking a bite of her meal when she was, and it was always the same food and in the same proportions. She responded in turn by taking smaller forkfuls. And then she noticed Lavender do the same. This went on for several minutes until they were each spearing a single pea onto their forks.
At this point, Hermione reached for a piece of bread from the basket in the center of the table and 'accidentally' elbowed Lavender's glass of milk over onto her tray. Lavender gave a girlish squeal as the milk ran all over her tray, threatening to go over the edge and onto her robes.
"Oh gosh, Lavender, I'm so sorry! Maybe Ron can take you down to the Great Hall to get the rest of your dinner."
Harry gazed at Ron with a meaningful look on his face and said in a flat voice, "Yeah, Ron, that's a really good idea."
Harry needn't have said anything. Ron was already standing and tugging at the back of Lavender's chair by the time Hermione was half through her sentence. He was relieved that someone had thought of something to bring an end to the Hunger World Cup. He found himself angrier than he believed possible at Lavender, who, for all her 'Won-Wons' and 'Ronnie-kins', had never done anything he believed to be damaging to anyone else.
As soon as they walked out the door in silence, Dean scourgified the mess up, including the food that was on the tray.
Ginny put her fork down. Everyone else ate in silence.
"So, is everyone else as fearful of the pee-stealing fin-rats of Kilimanjaro?"
Dean snorted pumpkin juice out his nose. Harry choked on his mouthful of fried haddock. Luna pounded him on the back saying, "Good to know I'm not the only one."
"The what?" Hermione asked.
"Pee-Stealing Fin-Rats. They are migrating north." Luna's silvery eyes had become even rounder than they usually were.
"Are they, now?" Neville said, a bemused expression flitting across his face.
"Luna," Harry said, trying desperately to keep a straight face. "When you say "pee-stealing," you aren't perchance indicating they burgle people's urine, are you?"
Tears were flooding down Dean face, mingling with the pumpkin juice dribbling along his chin as he pounded the table in unheard laughter.
"How, pray tell, do they manage this before we flush?" Hermione asked dryly. She normally had no patience for Luna's insistence on the existence of fantastical fauna, but this she had to hear.
Neville, who had heard of these 'dangerous' creatures before, answered for Luna cheerfully. "They swim up the drain."
"Ohhhhh!" Hermione smacked her forehead with her hand.
Everyone stopped their laughter abruptly and gazed at Hermione.
"Going to fill us in?" asked Harry.
"Well, Luna, you've been talking about this before, haven't you?"
"Oh, yes! It is very important to get the word out."
"Well, you're doing a very good job. Such a good job that I'm having to convince the first years that the bathrooms are safe."
Everyone began laughing. Luna, included, because first years should know, of course, that the bathrooms of Hogwarts are magically protected from such thieving little scamps. No one was laughing louder than Ginny, which was a sound it seemed her friends hadn't heard for months, and only encouraged them all to laugh harder, until they were all in tears.
It wasn't until several minutes into an entirely new topic of conversation that Harry noticed that Ginny had her fork back in her hand.
At the end of the meal, they were all in quite high spirits. While Ginny had by no means cleared her plate, she made more of a dent in it than any of her friends had dared to hope after the antics with Lavender. It was Ginny, in fact, who suggested that the Gryffindors in attendance retire to their common room for a game of Exploding Snap. Eager to play, everyone began standing up.
Hermione turned to Luna and asked, "Would you like someone to walk with back to Ravenclaw?"
The look on Luna's face seemed overjoyed as she began nodding her head so vigorously it was a marvel it didn't fall off. Harry looked at Hermione questioningly, but she simply smiled at him. "Start without me. I'll be there in a bit."
Hermione held Luna by the elbow and they waited as everyone else filed out of the Infirmary doors. "Just one thing and then we can go."
Hermione walked purposefully over to the Madam Pomfrey's office and knocked.
"Come in!" called the voice from inside.
Hermione went through the door. "Luna, aren't you coming?"
Once they were all inside, Hermione immediately began talking.
"Madam Pomfrey, I have two important things to ask of you."
"Are you ill, dear?"
"Oh no, I'm just fine. The first thing is, well, this." Hermione said, pulling out Ginny's leather-bound journal from her bag. "This is Ginny's journal that Healer Pax gave her. Draco Malfoy had it, I don't know how or why. He gave it to me willingly."
"I see." Madam Pomfrey nodded seriously.
"I'm sure you know about what kind of prank the Slytherin's pulled on her."
"Yes, but I'm not sure prank is the word I'd use." The nurse's mouth contorted into the very same sour expression that had overcome Hermione's face.
"Indeed. Well, you see, since he gave this to me willingly, and he and Ginny are by no means friends, and those Slytherins were his friends…I was sort of wondering if this might not be a new way to torture her."
"Ah, I see where you're going."
"Yes. And I looked it over for every sign that it had been tampered with, but I found nothing. I just don't want to give it back to her unless I'm sure."
Madam Pomfrey nodded seriously. "Of course, not. I'll let Professor Flitwick take a look."
Hermione gazed at the nurse. "He won't have to read it to do that, will he?"
"No, Miss Granger. But just to put your mind at rest…" And with a flourish of her wand, she tapped the book once. Opening up the pages for the girls to see, the journal was indeed blank, with no traces of the former secrets.
"There was something else, dear?"
"Er, yes. I was just wondering… unless it is Ginny's family, or other students you're aware of – Harry and me - Luna, here - Dean and Neville – could you please not allow them to join us? I think it does more harm than good."
Madam Pomfrey nodded her head. "I was wondering about that. The mood did seem to lighten up in there after Miss Brown left."
Both Hermione and Luna nodded emphatically.
"Thank you, Madam." Hermione said. Both girls turned to leave, walking out the Infirmary together.
Once they were on the other side of doors, Luna gazed at Hermione seriously. "You don't have to really walk me back."
"No, I want to. And I know what you're thinking, but I could've thought up a hundred reasons to talk to her that didn't include you. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to walk with you."
The two very different looking girls (and this was especially true today as Luna had enchanted her robes to emit a phosphorescent glow after sunset) walked along each other in a comfortable silence. Neither knew what to say to the other, but as legs don't move by the power of speech, it turned out they didn't need to say anything. Eventually they got to the entrance of Ravenclaw Tower. Luna raised her arm to knock on the door for a riddle, but Hermione tugged her arm down.
"I wanted to say thank you."
"For what?" asked Luna.
"For bringing up fin-rats, even if you were being serious. I think it was because of you Ginny felt safe enough to try to eat."
"Well," Luna paused, as if she were giving the matter thoughtful consideration. When she began speaking again, however, Hermione noticed her eyes will filled with an impish glee. "I've noticed that whenever I bring up some of the creatures I hear about from Daddy, people start to laugh. I reckoned that there's no reason I can't use that to my advantage."
A soft look overtook Hermione's face, as she suddenly regretted every instance she had ever doubted Luna's sanity.
"Good night, Luna."
"Good night!"
