This chapter may have some dialogue from my fic Harry Potter And The Other Side. I actually couldn't wait to get to this part and create an entire missing moment chapter for just the two of them.
Chapter 53: Hogsmeade
On Halloween morning, Harry and I awoke with the rest and went down to breakfast. Neither of us felt happy about the situation. I had even offered to stay with him, but Harry urged me to go to keep Hermione company.
"We'll bring you lots of sweets back from Honeydukes." said Hermione, looking desperately sorry for him while we sat at the breakfast table.
"Yeah, loads." I said. Hermione and I had formed a shabby truce for the moment, so we wouldn't be fighting in front of Harry. We weren't trying to bring him down more. I was still angry with her, and she probably was still with me, but we didn't want Harry knowing that.
"Don't worry about me." said Harry, in an offhand voice. "I'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."
He accompanied us to the entrance hall, where Filch, the caretaker, was standing inside the front doors, checking off names against a long list, peering suspiciously into every face, and making sure that no one was sneaking out who shouldn't be going.
"Staying here, Potter?" shouted Malfoy, who was standing in line with Crabbe and Goyle. "Scared of passing the Dementors?"
Harry ignored him as he waved us off.
We followed the group of students down the long path that we normally took carriages from the station to the school on. We were walking rather slow.
"If you walk any slower we will get left behind Mione." I said, trying to keep up.
"I know I'm sorry. I just feel bad about Harry. Seems like he can't ever have a good thing does it?"
"Yeah. I feel bad for him too. But we will pick him up some things. Maybe we should take some pictures for him. I did bring my camera, after all." I said, pointing to my pocket
"No. I think pictures will make him sad that he can't see anything. The treats should be enough."
"Right."
We walked in silence for awhile. Hermione was keeping her head down. Even though we had been around each other numerous times without Harry, something about all of this felt different. Kind of a good different. Well, it would have been if I wasn't still properly mad at her.
"Hey none of that gloomy shit" I said, looking at her pout.
"Language Ron!"
"I don't care. You need to cheer up. Am I that much of a bore that you can't maintain without Harry?"
Hermione hit my arm. "Ronald Weasley take that back! You are not a bore!"
"Well then why are you still mopey? We can still have fun. We can even go to boring places if you want. And I'll only mildly complain" I said, slowly getting over my ill feelings.
Hermione started to smile. I liked making her smile. Better than making her yell. Although sometimes that fun too.
"Does this mean we can have a cheerful time, and not be mad at each other anymore?" she asked.
"For now." I said, giving her a wink. I wasn't up to fighting any longer. She grinned, looping her arm through mine as we started walking faster, catching up with the rest.
When we got there we stopped and looked around. It was like a miniature Diagon Alley, only much more brilliant. I couldn't wait to go into Zonko's and Honeydukes, and to try butter beer. Fred and George said it was brilliant and warms you right up.
"Come on" I said as I pulled Hermione's arm. "Let's go and do stuff!"
Our first stop was Zonkos, where Hermione had to drag me away from spending all my money. I did make out with a few pranks, some invisible ink, and even a few muggle pranks.
We made a system so we were equally doing what we both wanted, so after we left Zonko's, we went to the post office. As boring as I thought it was going to be, I actually found it quite interesting. There were all types of owls in there, color coded for destination. Hermione sent off a letter to her parents with this really majestic barn owl, who looked more than happy to be taking it. Some of the owls went as far as the states.
After we left, it was my turn, so I dragged a reluctant Hermione towards Honeydukes.
When we walked in, I felt as if I had died and went to heaven. There were rows upon rows of different candies. There was an entire section dedicated to every single chocolate you could imagine.
Hermione found a section that had the dreaded sugar free candies, including this teeth flossing candy. I let Hermione get a couple, then I pulled her to something I thought she would really enjoy.
"Sugar quills?" she read, as she looked at the box I handed her. "Oh Ron, I couldn't."
"You can, and you will, Hermione Granger! I'm going to buy you that to make sure you eat it." I said, shoving the box back into her hand.
I went through the aisle, picking all kinds of different candies that I thought Harry would enjoy. By the time we were finished, I only had left what I had purposely set aside for my first butterbeer.
When we left, I unwrapped a sugar quill and handed it to Hermione.
"Go ahead. Try it!" I encouraged.
"But what about my parents?" cautioned Hermione. "They will be pretty ticked if they found out I was consuming so much sugar."
"Who's gonna tell them?" I said, in a sly voice.
She grinned, gave a quick shrug, and stuck the end of it in her mouth. Instantly, her whole expression lit up. She looked as if she had been born again.
"This is positively brilliant!" she said, putting the quill back into her mouth.
"See? I would never steer you wrong."
After visiting a few more shops, we went to a pub called The Three Broomsticks. We were greeted and seated by this very attractive lady with huge knockers named Madam Rosmerta. I tried not to stare, but I couldn't help it.
Hermione seemed agitated as we sat down at our table. "Oh Ronald, you're acting as if you've never seem women's breasts before." she huffed.
We looked over the menu and decided to hold off on food until the feast. We were really there for the butterbeer.
When the beautiful and kind lady sat two frothy mugs down in front of us, we simply stared at them. They were the same orange as my room walls, with foam dripping down the sides.
"Okay, on the count of three, we will both take a sip at the same time." said Hermione.
"Brilliant idea." I said, picking up my mug.
"You count."
"Alright. One, two, three!"
What should have been small sips, turned into big gulps for the both of us. The drink was absolutely wicked. It instantly warmed us right up as it went down. The drink was heavily flavored with butterscotch and caramel.
We gave each other appreciative looks as we each drank our butterbeers in silence, not being able to speak as a result of the goodness. We looked around at the different people that were in there. Some were students, a few teachers like Flitwick and Sprout were there, and we thought we had seen an ogre trying to cover up his face.
"That was so good!" said Hermione, as she finished off her foam, some getting onto her cheek.
Without realizing it until I had done it, I had picked up a napkin and wiped the bit of foam off of her cheek. Her brown eyes grew bright and I could feel myself blushing, especially my ears.
"Thanks." she said in a soft voice.
"No problem."
After we left, we stopped by the bookstore, where Hermione got herself a couple of books "for light reading". Then, as it was getting close to us having to get ready for the feast, we headed back up the road.
As we walked back towards Hogwarts, arms looped through each other again, I couldn't help but smile. This was actually a very nice day for it to be just us.
"So," I said, as we turned the corner into the courtyard. "did you have fun?"
"Of course I had fun. I had a really really good time." said Hermione, smiling from ear to ear.
"Even though Harry wasn't here with us? Even though it was just me?" I asked, not trying to sound as nervous as I was feeling.
She gently pinched my arm and smiled at me. "Yes. Even though it was just the two of us, I really had a lot of fun. I always have fun with you Ron. You are my favorite person all remember?"
"Oh I am, am I?" I said, in mock arrogance.
Hermione pushed some of her hair behind her ear and grinned. "Why of course you are. That shouldn't be a question."
I couldn't tell if it was all the sugar coursing through my veins, or her actual words, but suddenly I felt as if I was floating delightfully on a cloud. Even though I hated that Harry didn't get to come along with us, I couldn't help but think about how I really enjoyed our Hogsmeade trip with it being just Hermione and I. It was actually a very fun day. And being called her favorite person was the cherry on top.
I smiled and gave her arm a squeeze. "You're my favorite too." I said.
When we made it back to the common room, we saw Harry occupying the couch. His face lit up when he saw us.
"There you go," I said, dumping the sweets onto Harry's lap. "We got as much as we could carry."
"Thanks," said Harry, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. "What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?"
We went on about all the places we visited and everything we had seen.
"The post office, Harry! About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, all color-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there!" squealed Hermione.
"Honeydukes has got a new kind of fudge; they were giving out free samples, there's a bit, look!"
"We think we saw an ogre, honestly, they get all sorts at the Three Broomsticks!"
"Wish we could have brought you some butterbeer, really warms you up."
"What did you do?" said Hermione, looking anxious. "Did you get any work done?"
"No," said Harry. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office. And then Snape came in..."
He then went on and told us about his day, and also about Snape and what he had given Lupin.
"Lupin drank it?" I gasped. "Is he mad?"
Hermione checked her watch.
"We'd better go down, you know, the feast will be starting in five minutes."
We hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd, still discussing Snape.
"But if he..you know..." Hermione dropped her voice, glancing nervously around, "if he was trying to...to poison Lupin, he wouldn't have done it in front of Harry."
"Yeah, maybe." said Harry as we reached the entrance hall and crossed into the Great Hall. It had been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats, and many flaming orange streamers, which were swimming lazily across the stormy ceiling like brilliant water snakes.
The food was delicious as usual, and even though Hermione and I were full to bursting with Honeydukes sweets, we managed second helpings of everything. Harry seemed distracted mostly by the teachers table, watching Lupin and Snape back and forth.
The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a bit of formation gliding. Nearly Headless Nick had a great success with a reenactment of his own botched beheading.
It had been such a pleasant evening that our good moods couldn't even be spoiled by Malfoy, who shouted through the crowd as we all left the hall, "The Dementors send their love, Potter!"
We followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path to Gryffindor Tower, but when we reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, we found it jammed with students.
"Why isn't anyone going in?" I said curiously, as I tried to look over the heads in front of us.
I peered over a fifth year as best i could and was puzzled by what I saw. The portrait seemed to be closed.
"Let me through, please!" came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password. Excuse me, I'm Head Boy!"
Suddenly, the corridor grew eerily quiet. Percy shouted in a sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."
"What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived.
"Dunno." I said. "For some reason, we can't get through. Oh yeah, I got these for you."
I pulled out a box of Droobles Best Blowing Gum and gave it to her. Ginny loved Drooble's.
A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait. The Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Hermione, and I moved closer to see what the trouble was.
"Oh, my!"gasped Hermione, as she grabbed Harry's arm.
The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas were the floor. Great chunks of it had been torn away completely.
Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him.
"We need to find her." said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."
"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.
It was Peeves, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.
"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeve's grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he changed his voice to sound like he was actually sincere.
"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing." he added unconvincingly.
"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.
"Oh yes, Professor Head," said Peeves dramatically. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see."
Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."
