Stripped Bare- Chapter 37
The Ruse
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter.
"Hermione Granger! You cannot be serious!"
"You shrieked, Ginny?" Hermione asked, coming around the kitchen door later that evening, carrying a tray laden with drinks and snacks for her, Andrea, Maureen, Kailah and Ginny, who was standing in the corridor staring at her indignantly at the moment.
"You cannot expect me to watch this!" Ginny held up a lime green video case bearing a red and white drawing on the front.
"Actually, that was Maureen's choice, not mine. And you know Ghostbusters isn't that bad." She passed her friend and entered the living room. "I picked Titanic."
"So we have a choice," Ginny said, rolling her green eyes. "A movie about fake ghosts, or a sinking ship."
"Or American Pie," Kailah piped up from her seat on the floor in front of the television. The five of them had come back to Hermione's parents' house after a stop at the video store for a girls' night in. At least, that's what they wanted her father to believe. Her mother, however, had come up with a plan- the five friends would come back to the house with movies and snacks, appearing that they were going to have a slumber party of sorts, then when her father was asleep and she'd been given the all clear, Hermione was going to Apparate to the flat and spend the night in Harry's arms, but return before the alarm clock went off in her parents' room at seven the next morning.
"I want to watch Exorcist," Andrea intoned. Hermione, Kailah and Maureen turned to look at her in astonishment, and Ginny in confusion.
"Exorcist?" Ginny asked.
"That's the one then," Hermione said, shuddering at the thought of having to watch the horror movie. But if Ginny didn't know what it was, then she wouldn't be able to voice a complaint before they'd started it. "Someone give Ginny a pillow to scream into." She pressed the close button on the DVD player and headed back to her spot with the remote as Andrea passed Ginny a cushion, which the redhead took with a bit of bewilderment. "It's the VersionYou've Never Seen."
"I've never even heard of it, so how could it be the version I've never seen?"
"That just means that it has bits put in that were originally cut out of the movie. You know, that weren't part of it when it was in theaters?" Maureen answered. "But since you haven't seen any of it, this will be the first version you've seen." She chuckled at her joke while the others groaned. Ginny discovered the reason for the pillow as she watched the movie. She was so on edge during it that when someone cleared their throat from the doorway near the end, she shot out of her seat and let out a high pitch shriek.
"Shhhhhhh!" her friends admonished her. It was Hermione's mother, coming to tell her that her father had fallen asleep and it was safe for her to leave now. Maureen and Kailah stuffed one of the sleeping bags strewn around the floor with extra pillows, Ginny transfigured another to look like Hermione's bushy hair, and Hermione herself charmed the sleeping bag to rise and fall in simulated breathing to make it 'really' appear as if someone was sleeping inside it.
"Now that's spooky," Andrea said, eyeing the bag.
"But necessary," Hermione replied as she pulled on the clothes she'd been wearing that evening and hurried to find her shoes.
"Luv, why in the world are you bothering to get dressed?" Kailah asked. "You're just going to have to change back into your jammies when you come back."
"I know, I'm taking them with me, but Harry asked me to wear this to the flat." She slipped on her shoes and grabbed the bundle that was her pajamas, ready to Apparate.
"Have fun!" her friends told her, grinning as she moved to a clear part of the room.
"Oh, I will," she said, and was gone. Her mother went back upstairs and slid back into her bed. She was just about to fall asleep when her husband spoke next to her.
"So, has Hermione left to go see Harry yet?"