Written In The Body
Poetheather
A/N: I am going to take a two week hiatus so my arm has time to heal. I am sorry for this but this guarantees that I don't have to struggle as much to get edits done and new chapters written and all of that. I am sorry and I feel kind of bad about doing this, but with so many of you telling me to take care and my wife glaring at me it's not like I have better option. At least this isn't a cliffhanger. I'm not that mean. Well… yes I am, but not this time.
Still not JKR.
Thirty-Seven
Hermione was sitting on her favorite end of the couch in the living room with her mother, legs curled up underneath her, drinking a cup of tea. She was shaking her head in amusement as she had been for much of the trip home from the station. This had not been something she had expected and it was pretty wonderful. "So how exactly did this happen?"
"Well, apparently after you told Madam Pomfrey and Headmistress McGonagall that you were willing to take Simon in; they got in touch with both us and the Ministry, explaining the situation. The people in the Ministry office that deals specifically with Child Welfare seemed quite keen on the idea of us stepping forward to take custody as it did not require them to actually do much work in trying to find them a suitable family where Amy could continue to go to school and all of that. From what I gathered after talking with them, making them both simply disappear from the system would have raised some alarms. There are simply too many records out there to disappear people successfully. So after speaking with us and having talked to the Headmistress, Madam Pomfrey and apparently the Minister about you they came up with this particular solution. As I understand it, after the Ministry representative explained it to us, we are their parents all nice and legal in both the magical and muggle world and you are their magical guardian." said her mother with an amused smile. "So in a way you are in charge of them some as well, able to do whatever needs doing in the wizarding world."
"Wow." Hermione was blown away by all of this. It was just all so unexpected. When she had offered to take in Simon she had been quite serious but she had also had been aware that the odds had not really been in her favor. Who would seriously consider allowing a young woman still in school to take responsibility for a young boy and his sister? But this solution… this was a lot to take in. It seemed so practical, well thought out, and workable that she had trouble believing that the Ministry was actually involved with it.
"I know. It was a surprise for us as well. Your father and I always wanted more kids but it never came to pass because of a few reasons. We certainly never thought getting more kids would happen this way. We thought it would happen more traditionally but this is okay. Amy is just precious by the way. She is a bit clingy right now but I think that's mostly because of the whole change over from her old family to ours. We've had her a little over a month and have her in school. She is doing well in her classes and she is starting to get used to life here bit by bit. I hope you don't mind but I have gotten out some of your older books and she has been going through them and that's been nice. Amy is almost as bright as you are so we have been encouraging her." Her mum was happy to make all of this clear which Hermione greatly appreciated. It was a good thing to see her mother this happy about the way their life had changed. Gaining two new family members could have gone poorly.
"Simon is really bright as well Mum, just so you know. He's a really sweet kid and is doing very well in all of his classes." said Hermione, chuckling to herself.
"I guess his big sister has been helping him stay on track?" teased her mother gently, nudging Hermione with her foot.
"A little bit at the beginning. I mean Mum you should have seen him; he seemed so lost at first and had no real friends. He kind of reminded me of me and a bit of Harry so of course I had to get involved. Now while he isn't great friends with any of the boys in his year, I think he said something about the fact that they don't make any sort of sense to him for some reason or other, he hangs out with all of the girls in his year in our House. It's actually pretty funny. We tease him about his harem and he blushes about it, which is very cute. The girls he hangs out with think it's hysterical but clearly love him to death. They are all thick as thieves." Hermione grinned, thinking about how happy Simon looked surrounded by all of his female friends. Regardless of whether or not the he made friends with the guys in his year, Simon had fast friends with the girls and they did most everything together.
"I can imagine. You know, I was wondering why you kept talking about this boy in your letters given what we knew about you and Ginny and then we met him at your birthday and again at the Ceremony. That helped clarify a lot of things. So when the Ministry came to us asking if we wanted to do this and we realized that one of the names mentioned was that Simon… well how could we not do this? If we didn't take him in you would never forgive us if you ever found out. Besides I think you will like Amy almost as much when you really meet her." said her mother with a grin.
Hermione grinned back at her. "I am really looking forward to that. Simon was so stunned when I told him she was magical and so pleased she was going to be here. He loves her so much. It kind of boggles my mind to think that I now have two more siblings that I didn't have at the start of this school year."
"I know. But to tell you the truth Hermione, it hasn't been that much of a problem all told. We have had some helping make sure we could get two more bedrooms in here somehow and Minerva got Filius who was quite happy to help with that. So they each have their own room now and we still have a guest room. We are two linen closets down but that's okay. That is a compromise I can live with. Magic has been really useful in making this transition easier as it has allowed us to take care of issues that would have necessitated us moving otherwise and I do love this house. They have all of their stuff here, as the Ministry moved them out completely, and that made things easier for Amy to accept having all her dolls and stuffed animals with her. She still has some problems adjusting but by and large she seems to be coping with this new chapter in her life quite well."
"That's good to hear," said Hermione, happy to hear that things were going that well for her parents and in the integrating of these new family members. "I am still pretty surprised that the Ministry agreed to make me their magical guardian. I would have thought they would have gone with Professor McGonagall or someone similar."
"Apparently the fact that you are a national hero and are highly respected by a number of important people in the government has a lot to do with it. And the fact that there are almost no real decisions for you to make until this summer at the earliest means you will be out of school before you completely take over that portion of the job. Apparently you also being nineteen had something to do with it as well and well over age." Her mother smiled at her with some amusement.
Hermione shook her head and chuckled slightly, rolling her eyes, "I can tell this will be fun."
"I'm sure you will be fine. You will do great at that part of the job and can visit all the time, which we would expect anyway. You'll be a great big sister to both of them and I know you already look out for Simon."
"There is that. It would be nice to get to know my new little sister. I know I won't have a lot of time with her before I move out. And you have what, about five years with her before she heads off for Hogwarts. And then there is the fact that you will have Simon for parts of the next six years. Not too bad all things considered since you said you wanted more kids after me. And this time there should be a lot fewer issues from the magical world trying to separate them from you. No psycho trying to kill everyone. No major conflicts between the magical world and our life anymore, just relaxing instead of running amuck. Such a nice change of pace." added Hermione.
Her mother looked off into the distance, smiled and had a sip of her tea, "That will be nice. For so long we thought that you were going to drift away from us, that we were going to lose you. Thankfully that all worked out and now there's this. But you know we're not going to take them in and forget all about our baby girl don't you? What kind of parents would we be if we did that?"
"Ugh… did you have to call me baby girl?" complained Hermione, groaning in irritation at the term.
"Sorry Hermione, not going to stop saying that ever but that is something you are going to be forever. You better get used to it." Her mother grinned at her. "You'll always be my precious baby girl."
Simon and Amy came downstairs and walked into the living room, Amy dragging Simon along by his hand as Hermione was gagging from what her mother had said. As an attempt to distract herself from all of that she turned her attention to them as Amy was talking to her brother, saying, "She's really nice Simon."
The two older Grangers looked over at the two youngsters and waited to see what was going on and what was going to happen. Amy got behind her brother and pushed a little, sending him towards Hermione's mother. Simon looked a bit amused and embarrassed at the same time. His sister basically ordered, "Really talk to her, you'll like it. I like her Simon."
Hermione and her mother shared a look of understanding and smirked at that. Amy came around the couch and grabbed one of Hermione's hands, tugging on it. "Come on, come. You have to see my room."
Hermione restrained her snickering. It just wouldn't do to laugh at a six year old girl who seemed very intent on getting this to happen, using her scant weight to try and drag Hermione forward. Giving in, she stopped her slight bit of resistance and then followed along after Amy to her bedroom. The room was a similar size to hers but the decorations were a good bit more girly, with stuffed animals and dolls everywhere and far more feminine colors than Hermione was partial to. There were some pictures of horses and animated characters on the walls. It did look comfortable and did speak of who Amy could be. She turned to face Hermione, "This is my room. It's bigger than my room at my other house and now my stuffed animals have more room for themselves which is important. They didn't like being crowded. This one is Pepper, she's my favorite."
The girl held up a stuffed otter that was a good bit over a foot long and grinned at her new sister. Once Amy was sure that Hermione got a good look at her she hugged the doll close. Hermione had an idea that she was sure that her new little sister would adore and wanted to see how this would play out, "Do you like otters?"
"Oh yes! They are the bestest animal there is. I also like elephants and giraffeses. Horses are awesome too. They are so beautiful. Owls are neat as well. Did you know they can turn their heads all the way round?" Amy grinned and hugged her otter as she pointed to several different animals on the bed.
"I did know that. The magical world uses owls for the mail which is why I have Perdita and Mom and Dad have Cuspid. They are very useful and are great companions. Since you know about magic and are going to be able to do it yourself someday would you want to see a nice magic trick?" asked Hermione, trying to keep from grinning broadly with expectation.
"Really? You'll show me actual magic? The people who got me from my house after my mom hit me because somehow Pepper came flying over to me when I felt really sad never did anything I could really see. And the nice lady who healed me, she waved her wand but I couldn't really tell anything either. And then I came here and there was no real magic though your parents told me all about you and that you could do all sorts of stuff." Amy seemed really excited about this possibility, eyes wide and she bounced some as she spoke. She sat down on the edge of her bed and looked at Hermione excitedly, Pepper hugged tight against her chest.
Knowing that this would make Amy very happy, she pulled free her beech wand and focused on one of the many recent moments that had made her happy. Recalling the moment that Ginny had first told her that she loved her, Hermione began smiling a bit goofily as she moved her wand and called out, "Expecto Patronum!"
Her otter burst forth from the wand, bright and strong, swimming through the air, spinning as it went leaving a very faint ethereal trail behind it. Amy squealed happily at the top of her lungs, bounding to her feet and clapping excitedly, still managing to retain her hold on her otter doll. Hermione brought her otter around the room and finally over by them and had it sit next to her new sister where it looked at her and rolled a full circle on its back. The trembling young girl tried to touch the otter and her hand went through the silvery ghostly figure which made her gasp a little. Amy was clearly delighted by this display of magic and asked in awe, "You have a magic otter?"
"Yep. This is my patronus, something that is made up of my happy thoughts, the stronger the thought the brighter and more powerful the patronus. Happiness and love actually power the charm." explained Hermione with a grin, knowing that this was about as simplified as she could make it.
"So pretty… what was your happy thought?" asked Amy, never taking her eyes off the wriggling Patronus.
Hermione blushed slightly, remembering the moment so well and how it was the best birthday present she had ever received, and said, "My happy thought this time was of when my girlfriend first told me she loved me."
Amy cocked her head to the side, actually turning away from the patronus and looked at Hermione a bit confused, "You have a girlfriend and not a boyfriend?"
"Yes I do. Her name is Ginny and she has long red hair and plays sports. She's really nice, quite pretty and pretty smart as well. She's my best friend and we love each other very much." Hermione was enjoying this time with Amy, as she seemed to be a good kid and inquisitive, kind of like she had been when younger, only with a lot more dolls.
"But why girls?" Amy seemed to be trying to figure this out.
"Why boys? I dated boys for a while and they just didn't work for me. People need to go out and date whoever makes them happy and that's all. If it's a boy or a girl who cares as long as you are happy?" She smiled and shrugged.
"Oh… okay." Amy looked up at her with her big eyes and asked, "Do you think she'll like me?"
"I'm sure of it Amy. I mean, Ginny likes Simon and he's your big brother so why wouldn't she like you." said Hermione wanting to reassure Amy about Ginny. Amy seemed to really want Hermione's approval and she was happy to give it.
"She does?" Amy seemed amazed by this fact which made Hermione smile broadly and she struggled not to laugh. That really wouldn't do.
"Yes. She does. So does my friend Luna. We hang out with him all the time."
"And… and you're my big sister now… right?" Hermione did not have to stretch to hear the worry about abandonment in the girl's voice. It was very clear that the whole situation that had resulted in her coming here was still affecting her. Having her mother hit her had to have scared Amy quite a lot if it had been the first time and after having seen what had happened to her brother time and again she might have been able to make such a connection to herself. Amy really needed a family that would hold together, be there for each other, and love each other for who they were.
Hermione hugged the girl, trying to hold onto her focus of the otter, making it swim around the room a bit more to keep her amused. "That's right. I'm your big sister now and you are my little sister, just like Simon is my little brother now. Is that okay with you?"
"I always wanted a big sister." said Amy shyly before hugging Hermione as strong as she could.
"Well, now you have one." said Hermione, banishing her Patronus and hugging the girl back with both arms. "I've always wanted a sister as well and I think you'll be a good one."
"Thank you for keeping my brother safe." whispered Amy, talking into Hermione's side.
Hermione sighed. The fact that she was aware that there was a need for protecting him made her sad. A six year old girl should not be aware of those things. They should be worried about playtime and learning to read, not about some of the darker parts of people. She tried to keep a smiling face on things as she replied, "It was my pleasure Amy. It was pretty easy so far. Simon is really nice and I have enjoyed being his friend."
"I just wish mummy and daddy hadn't been so scared of magic. I think it's pretty neat. That patroro spell is so cool. You made a magic otter. I'm a magical princess now and why would that be bad?" She started off kind of sad but cheered up as she went along.
"It's not a bad thing Amy. Magic is a normal part of daily life for wizards and witches and even for non-magical people as well. The thing is that wizards and witches can control it and make it do things with their spells and in other ways. I bet that even non-magicals do things with it as well but it's not as easy as for magicals and is kind of rare because if you look at history there are lots of stories about people doing these incredible things that nobody else could which could easily be explained by magic. Since it is a part of everything in the world then it's not a bad thing at all." explained Hermione, wanting to make sure that Amy understood this since her parents had been so anti-magic. If Amy had the least little influence from them about how magic was perceived she wanted to make sure that those seeds of thought were stamped out early and replaced. Between having to deal with crazy muggle thoughts and crazy pureblood thoughts it was a wonder that she just didn't scream.
Amy just nodded her head, as if she were following along with everything she was saying. Hermione had no idea if she was or not but at least Amy was putting up a good front.
"Well, enough about that. Let's talk about something more fun. So what is it that you like to do for fun?" asked Hermione, trying to find out more about her new sister.
"I like reading and dancing and storytelling and playing with my dolls and swimming and stuff." rattled off the six year old, pleased with herself, hugging Pepper again.
"That's good because I like some of those as well," said Hermione.
"Really?" Amy found that fascinating for some strange reason.
Hermione snickered a little. It had been so long since she had interacted with a young child that she had forgotten how fun they could be. They seemed so intense sometimes, so focused on the moment that it made having a conversation with them interesting. "Yes really. I like reading most of all."
"I like reading a lot but I'm not very good yet. Your mom bought me new books because I didn't have that many back at my old home. I like lots of different stories. She even said she was going to read me the Hobbit." said Amy excitedly, like she said most things. She really was an exuberant little kid.
"The Hobbit is a really good story and she read it to me when I was about your age. You know… since you are my little sister and all I guess I can let you borrow some of my older books if you promise to be careful with them." said Hermione, pleased at the reaction she was getting from Amy. With wide eyes, she just seemed really thrilled by the idea. The more Hermione thought about it the more she could get used to this little sister idea. "You want to see my room and look at some of my books?"
Amy bounded up and grabbed her hand, trying to drag her out of the room and down the hall to where her bedroom was. Once in front of the door to her room, she opened it up and let Amy walk in first. The little girl was looking at everything as if it were about to do something, clearly thinking the room was far more magical than it actually was. Hermione chuckled. She knew that urge to believe that everything in the magical world had to be magical. Thankfully it had not taken her long to get over that, but she had been eleven at the time. "My older books that you might be able to read are on that bookshelf on the bottom two shelves. You should be able to read some of those, especially the ones at the far left on the bottom shelf."
Hermione sat on her bed and then lay back, pivoting so her head was on her pillow and she was staring at her once familiar ceiling. It had been a while since she had been here, looking up at this ceiling and tracing patterns in the slight imperfections, finding faces and shapes in the ceiling coating. She was a touch apprehensive about the fact that she was going to be sleeping alone tonight. It had been months since she had slept alone and she really hoped that she didn't have any nightmares because of how off it might feel. Did she need Ginny's arms for her sleep to feel normal? All she really wanted was to be happy and have a nice night's sleep. Was that really too much to ask?
Amy was enjoying the search through her books, humming to herself as she pulled them out and put them back and repetitive sounds had Hermione's thoughts turned to that summer, to waking up in Ginny's arms. She saw the framed picture of the two of them both dressed up and ready for dinner and the play over on her desk. It really had been a date but it wasn't like she had told Ginny that at the time as she had simply been trying to treat Ginny the way she deserved to be treated. Oh how Vixy teased her about that now. There were other pictures of the two of them scattered amongst her pictures of her, Ron and Harry as well as a few of just her and Ron or her and Harry and one with the Defense Association. Having those pictures made everything better. Even if her Vixen weren't here, just being able to look over at those pictures of the two of them smiling, and at a few of the wizard photos where her love was waving at her and kissing the her in the photo on the cheek which made her heart warm. She might miss the girl of her dreams but there were reminders everywhere of Ginny's presence.
Once she has chosen three books she wanted to read, Amy headed off to her room with a quick hug and bye, leaving Hermione on her own, accompanied only by her thoughts. That was okay and she realized that it had actually been a while since she had just been on her own. Her head was still spinning about the fact that Simon was now her little brother. That was so crazy. And that wasn't even taking into consideration Amy. She so wanted to send Ginny a note about this whole situation but figured that it could wait until the morning, where she would be rested and her thoughts might be settled enough to provide more coherency to her words. Right now she could say what she wanted to say but her thoughts were still a bit jumbled about how things ended up. After a few more minutes of woolgathering, she heard her father call, "Kids… dinner!"
Hermione pondered that phrase, something that had probably never been called out in this house. Over the summer he had yelled girls but this, this was something different, this was almost a fulfillment of her parents dream to have a larger family, a sign that it actually was real. She stood slowly and watched as Amy tore past her door, hair trailing behind her some. This made her chuckle and follow along behind, reaching her door when Simon did. They both smiled at each other and Simon gave her a hug. "Thanks for being my big sister."
"I'm glad I could help. You're a good kid Simon and you deserve all the happiness that we can get for you," replied Hermione, hugging him back.
The meal was a good bit more rowdy than she was used to for home and it made her think of the Weasleys oddly enough. Seeing as they were the only family that was kind of large that she really knew she could kind of see a similar type of dynamics at play and she couldn't help but smile. That was a warm family and to have that in common with them was a good thing in her book. There was lots of conversation between everyone and Amy had to be told to slow down twice before she choked herself on her food. It reminded her so much of Ron that she felt wistful and wished she could talk to him. If only they weren't at odds right now. Everyone smiled when the little girl said she wanted to eat fast so she could get back upstairs so she could read some more. No one could really argue with that kind of reasoning but she did slow down a little. Hermione got a knowing look from her parents and blushed a little. Had she really been that bad when she had been little? Simon was able to leave the table first, despite not eating rapidly, and he headed back to his new room to unpack. As Amy finished off her meal and tore back upstairs to return to her reading there was a knock at the door.
The two adults and Hermione all looked at each other in confusion as they were obviously not expecting any company at that hour, before her mother lay down her utensils headed toward the door. Her mother could barely be seen looking through the peep hole though she was clearly heard when she gasped, calling Hermione once the door was opened. She hustled over there and when she got to the entrance way, standing next to her mother was a red faced and crying Ginny. Hermione's stomach fell at the sight. There is no way this could be good news. "Gin!"
She ran over and pulled her girlfriend into a tight hug, worried about the myriad things that could have happened, silently praying it wasn't the worst. "Are you alright?"
Ginny shook her head no and just rested her forehead against Hermione's shoulder, crying silently, shaking in her arms. Hermione rubbed the girl's back and shared a confused look with her mother. She only wished there were an easier way to get answers but even magic did not provide answers like that from thin air.
"What happened?" Hermione led her inside and to the living room, where they both sat on the couch. Hermione put a hand on her girlfriend's thigh so Ginny would know that she was there for her.
Once Ginny regained her composure a bit more she began to fill them in on what had occurred. Her words were mixed with anger and sadness and it hurt to listen to but they sat there taking it all in. "Heh… what happened? My mother is what happened. Who else? Considering I was feeling pretty good after the trip home, I decided to take a chance, you know, and told my parents about us tonight after dinner. I wanted to share with them a little of my… our happiness. It… well, it did not go well. Well… that's not quite true. My dad seemed to take the whole thing in stride, though he was a bit quiet through the rest of it. Mum however lost it. She started ranting about how could I do this to her, to the family and why couldn't I just get back together with Harry like a good girl. She even said that she was disappointed in me because I had stolen you from Ron. Like I stole you! If anything you got me. But no, she said I was mistaken and confused and that I needed to get over this silly little fling so I could get back together with Harry and you could get back together with my idiot brother and we could all become one big happy Weasley family like we are supposed to be and have our fairytale ending! That's the point where I started screaming at her about how delusional she was. We had a huge row over that and when I couldn't take her calling me a brazen hussy anymore for loving you, or some of the things she called you, stating that Skeeter had been right about you all along or some tripe, I went to my room, grabbed my trunk and left. I just… I… I can't even stand to look at her right now."
Hermione pulled Ginny close to her and rubbed her back comfortingly, making soothing sounds. While that did sound like something Mrs. Weasley would do it also didn't sound like her, especially after this spring and summer. To go after her daughter like that was so out of character that it just felt wrong. Her mother said, "I'm really surprised by all of this. I didn't think that your mother would react like that to this news."
Ginny snorted derisively, "That's my mum for you."
"Well, don't you worry about a thing Ginny, you know you can stay here however long you need to. Hopefully this can all get sorted before Christmas as I know you both were looking forward to the Weasley family Christmas. I was as well, as I've never seen a magical Christmas and it sounded kind of interesting." said her mother with a comforting smile.
"Thank you Mrs. Granger. I really appreciate this. It was here or going over to see Harry and… well… I didn't want to disturb him unless you all weren't able to take me in. Arrgh… I'm just so bloody angry. How could she do that to me?" grumbled Ginny, clenching and unclenching her fists.
"Parents want what's best for their kids but sometimes they get caught up in their dreams for their children's future as opposed to supporting their children however things turn out or in whatever it is that they are interested in. We didn't know that Hermione was magical and that way of thinking helped us as we had to change our dreams for her midstride. Though we really weren't all that surprised when she said she was interested in girls. It actually surprised us more when she said she was interested in your brother Ron than anything else. That was completely unexpected. We had both thought that if it was actually going to be a boy, that it might have been Harry instead." explained her mother with a bit of a smirk.
"Mum… it wouldn't be Harry. Ugh… honestly Mum… he's like my brother and has been for years. That's not right." complained Hermione, shuddering at the thought.
"Stranger things have happened young lady. But in the end your father and I just want you girls to be happy, so whatever that takes we are willing to do. It is all that matters to us." She said with a smile for the both of them.
"Was that Ginny I heard?" asked Simon as he entered the room.
Ginny snapped her head around and starred at the boy, completely confused. "Simon? What are you doing here?"
He grinned broadly at her, excited about knowing something she didn't, and said proudly, "I live here now."
Ginny gaped at the boy for a moment and then snapped her head back around to stare at Hermione and Hermione's mother. Hermione giggled for a moment and then replied to the very baffled redhead, "No, really Ginny, it's true. I was just as surprised as you are now when I spotted Amy with my parents. I was flabbergasted."
"What? Simon's sister is here as well? Why didn't you tell me?" complained Ginny, sounding a bit whiney right then.
"I was going to tell you in the morning Gin. I have been too busy with being home, getting to know Amy and then dinner. I had figured that I could wait until the morning to send you a letter about all of this because it wasn't that important right now." stated Hermione. "Besides Perdita had flown all the way home from Hogwarts and she's tired right now so I wasn't going to make her fly to you even for something like this."
"Hey now 'mione, this is important news. You could have sent Cuspid with news like this. Simon's like a little brother and I was worried about his new family as much as you were. You know that. Luna is as well." Ginny pouted a little and Hermione found it so cute, with her bottom lip sticking out like that, that she had to lean forward and kiss her, focusing on the outstretched lip. Ginny pulled back and looked Hermione right in the eye, "Don't think that is going to distract me Otter. I am wise to your tricksy ways."
Simon stood there and snickered at them. Hermione's mother looked away from their antics and over at her new son, asking, "Are they always like that?"
"Sometimes… their worse." He stated calmly, clearly conveying the truth.
Both girls turned to face him, looking indignant, and protested, "Hey!"
Simon snickered at that, hiding his grin behind his hand. "It's true and you know it. Luna is the only sane one out of the three of you and that's because her boyfriend is nowhere about most of the time. But then again I have to admit that she is worse than you two when he shows up."
"Oh that reminds me, I was going to get Harry to talk to you some over the break. Is that okay?" asked Hermione, a bit worried as to how Simon might take that. She had been trying to make this happen for a while and it never seemed to happen. She knew that it had been something that both thought would be a good thing but she was aware that people changed their minds.
"Really? I like Harry and it would be nice to talk to him. He's really nice." Simon said the last bit quietly, almost as if he were embarrassed to admit that.
"Even if it is about how you were treated at home?" asked Hermione, filing in that reaction in the back of her head for later thought as it seemed a bit out of character for the boy.
Simon looked up and nodded. "Yeah, even then. You said he went through similar stuff and so I'm wondering what he can say to me. You said he might be able to make me feel a little better about things."
Ginny grinned, not quite over the argument with her mother but feeling a bit better than before, "Harry is really good at making people feel better. Either that or he rushes off to go save them from something or other. It's usually one of the two now that I think of it."
Hermione giggled in agreement, "It so true, his saving people thing is really kind of bad and I was hoping that it would get better once the crisis was over but last I heard it is still there."
Simon had heard so many of the stories about Harry's adventures over the last term that he didn't even need to ask. He knew about the saving people thing and all that it entailed. "That sounds good. Will we see him soon?"
"Maybe. Let me check to see what he is up to tomorrow. I don't know his schedule since I don't see him all that often and last I heard he was still in training to be an Auror. But if he's free we can have him come over, if not we will see him later for sure. He promised and he is good about not letting people down." Hermione made a mental note and knew that would be a good enough reminder to get to that tomorrow.
"Okay."
Hermione stood up from the couch, extending her hand to her girlfriend, "Come on Gin. Let's get your stuff put in my room and then you can meet Amy. Believe it or not, she's even cuter than Simon."
"Hey!" complained the boy in question, pouting a little.
The two girls wandered off, chuckling at his indignation over the teasing. Once they were in her room and her trunk was put to the side, Hermione pulled Ginny into her arms, kissing the girl soundly. Once they broke apart, Hermione kept her face close and whispered, "I am so sorry that this happened Vixy. You really did not need that."
Ginny kissed her on the lips lightly and said, "Thanks Kitten that does help. I just wish that she wasn't being so crazy. It just hurts, you know?"
"I'm a bit surprised by this but then again your mother is not very subtle on the whole. Let's just hope that she is just pulling a Ron and blowing up over this and will calm down over this soon. I know how much you love your Mum and I would hate if this were a permanent thing." commented Hermione, running her hand down the back of Ginny's head. She so loved this girl.
"That would be lovely. Sometimes she makes it so hard you know. I am so upset with her right now you have no idea. I could just scream!" She could feel Ginny tense up.
"Well now Vixy, we can't have that now can we. Maybe later tonight I can find a better reason to make you scream, something you might actually enjoy and will take your mind off things." Hermione's eyes sparkled in anticipation. She really had not been looking forward to sleeping alone that evening and now it looked like she wasn't going to. She had gotten so used to sleeping with her girlfriend that she was sure it was going to have been strange to sleep without her even being alongside her or even close by as she had been in the hospital wing. That strangeness might have even caused her difficulty falling asleep.
Ginny grinned broadly, her eyes lighting up at the idea. "Well now Miss Granger that is giving me something quite lovely to look forward to this evening. What a most excellent way for you to turn my frown upside down."
Hermione snickered at that somewhat amused. Sometimes Ginny was such a prat. She purred out, "Well, I just couldn't stand the thought of you being sad all night. You know that I would do anything to put a smile on your face."
"Anything? Well, I do like the sound of that." happily said Ginny, nuzzling against Hermione.
"Well now, let's introduce you to Amy first before we get around to playing shall we. But once the lights go out missy, you are mine." Hermione sort of growled those last words out rather possessively.
The both looked excited over that prospect.