Based at the start of Book 4, but taking different directions to the cannon storyline.
Hermione was more than happy to be getting away from her home for the holidays. It had absolutely nothing to do with grievances to her beloved parents, nor did it have anything to do with the lovely home and neighbourhood she was accustomed to- the honest truth was, Hermione was sick of being alone. See, while she would have never admitted this to her friends, the first few weeks of the summer had been quite lonely. Over the three years she had been at Hogwarts, Hermione had become accustomed to life and laughter that came with boarding- and with that, every break became just slightly harder than the last. For as much as Hermione loved silence, she also loved Harry and Ron and the noise they brought with them. So yes, Hermione was more than happy when the family of her dear friend Ron invited her to join them at the Quidditch World Cup.
It was quite early in the day that Hermione had said her goodbyes to her parents, with a tight hug that lingered long enough for Hermione to consider staying, and a sincere goodbye shared amongst the three of them- Hermione boarded the bus that would take her to her destination. It was a fairly long bus ride- as were most things in the muggle world, but Hermione appreciated this very much. She sat alone reading, with Crookshanks beside her in a cage that any witch or wizard would faint at the sight of (as cats were not an animal that anyone deemed untamed enough to trap), Hermione felt at ease with herself and her surroundings, and for the first time in a while had a genuinely good feeling about the summer and the year to follow.
Within an hour and an exchange of transport, Hermione had finally arrived to the Leaky Cauldron. Freeing Crookshanks and doing away with his cage, they entered the creaky inn and Hermione was delighted by the sight of witches and wizards going about their days. While writing with quills and eating meals with an owl on ones chair would be mundane to some, Hermione was quite pleased by this, almost as if to reassure her that the past 3 years hadn't been a fever dream. And so, with a simple deep breath, she started towards the brick wall that would take her to Diagon Alley. Hermione drew her wand and with 5 familiar knocks, was given passage through to the world ahead.
Now, tricky part. While her instructions were clear enough on paper, the reality of them were a fair bit harder in the real world, even for Hermiones standards. As she walked out holding her luggage, she instantly began to look about for the glow of bright ginger hair. If it had been any other Weasely this would have been simple, as they would of waited outside the entrance for her, but as Hermione knew well, Fred and George were not simple. Hermione walked out of the way of the crowds and found a footstep to raise herself above the hustle of people around, and as she scanned for the two boys she secretly wished Mrs Weasely could of sent Ginny and Ron- or even Percy, whom she wasn't very fond of in the first place.
"Lost, are you?" a voice spoke from behind. Hermione turned in shock, but was faced by the closed door of the building behind her. Startled, she looked up and then found what appeared to be a string hanging down from a window- as well as two very familiar faces. Scowling slightly, she stepped away to catch a closer look at the two, who popped in and then soon lurched out of the building that appeared to be some sort of herbology shop. The two smiled brightly at Hermione, and out of relief and joy, Hermione smiled back and gave them short hugs.
"It's nice to see you two so soon," Hermione said as they took her luggage and began to walk uptown, "I was expecting to look around the streets for at least an hour."
"So were we, but you took so bloody long to get here we were starting to think you were playing a joke on us." Said George. Hermione smiled at this, and picked up Crookshanks who couldn't seem to keep up.
"That makes sense now. I suppose I didn't consider that you would be expecting me here near the time I was to leave home. Thats truly my bad," Hermione responded, now starting to feel a bit bad about this miscommunication.
Fred patted her back harshly, making her jump slightly. "Don't worry about a thing, really, we've been using the time to our advantage with all the poor sods coming into the shop; it's the perfect opportunity to practice some new little trinkets we've been working on," he said. "Even better when you decided to step right into the trap. Honestly weren't expecting this thing to work so good, but tell us if you start to feel funny at all, it hasn't had much testing before today." The item in question was a long pinkish tube that didn't really stand out to Hermione at all, but recognising it as the source of the sound, she quickly realised the function of the artefact.
"In all honesty we aren't that big on it," Fred said.
"Yeah, anyone can send a message, what we're really interested in is eavesdropping. But until then this will have to do." George finished.
Hermione was surprised by this. Not so much by the mischief, but the fact that they came up with it themselves. "Thats quite impressive" Hermione said. "Incredibly rude, and of course unpleasant, but I must admit that this is quite interesting. May I look at it?" She asked. Fred handed her the tube and the three walked in silence as Hermione looked at the object, mumbling to herself. The two simply ignored this as they eventually reached the public floo network. Hermione handed back the artefact to Fred, smiling sweetly as she did so, and one by one the three made their way to the final destination: The Burrow.
Hermione entered the Burrow and quickly exited the fireplace. She was joined shortly by George and then Fred, who more so jumped towards her before catching himself a centimetre before collision. "Some fellow tried to talk to me, thought it might've been one of the poor guys from before. Sorry Hermione," he said as she furrowed her eyebrows, shocked by the sudden closeness of the two. She took a step back from him quietly, suddenly at a loss for words. "Also, if you don't mind, don't mention our little device quite yet. Mum would go mental and it costed us quite a lot to acquire the materials- it'd be a shame to lose it so soon."
Hermione nodded slowly, before turning to George who was carrying her luggage, ready to take it upstairs. "Oh swoon over my brother, but leave me to carry your things," he joked. "Typical." Suddenly coming to wits, she jumped to help him and followed him up the stairs carrying a fair share of her possessions. Fred simply watched the girl walk, suddenly hyper aware of how uncomfortable the encounter was for Hermione. The two walked up the stairs tiredly as they carried Hermiones luggage; Crookshanks far ahead as if knowing where to go.
"Sorry about that before, just got a bit shocked," Hermione said.
"You can face an escaped prisoner but a little jump from the floo network spooks you? You are strange." George responded lightheartedly.
"Well there's a difference when you're expecting something, as opposed to a complete surprise." Hermione retorted as they reached the door.
George knocked and shortly barged in anyways, to where Ginny was sat reading a book on her bed. The young girl looked up and smiled widely at the sight of her friend, and then got up to give her a hug. The two embraced for a moment before George bid them farewell, leaving the two to catch up.
"You've taken so long, did my brothers try and hide from you?" Ginny asked, and Hermione giggled.
"No, believe it or not I was the one who ran late. Took the muggle bus," she responded. Ginny nodded slowly to this, only half understanding it, but accepted the answer anyways. The two went on to discuss the weeks they spent apart and what they'd been up to- which was mainly Hermione listening to Ginny, who had a lot more to talk about unsurprisingly. As they laughed at a joke Ginny told about her brother Percy, the conversation was cut short when Ron entered the room. Looking up mid laugh, Hermione was pleasantly taken aback and rose to hug her friend. "It's so good to see you, Ronald!" Hermione said joyously, still caught in the laughter between her and Ginny.
Finding joy in their laughter, Ron chuckled. "It's good to see you too, but clearly I'm not top priority anymore," he said jokingly and at this Hermione slapped his arm and smiled "Mums making lunch now, I figured you'd got caught up in some boring conversation with Ginny so I thought I'd save the day." Rolling her eyes, she went to help Ginny up so they could go down together.
"I swear, Ron, you're as rude as the earth is round sometimes," Hermione said as the three walked down.
"Says the one who can't even say hello to her best mate when she arrives at his house," Ron retorted, to which Ginny giggled before stating that her brother did have a point.
The conversation ended when they reached the kitchen, where Mrs Weasely was stirring away at a pot as various charmed items prepared lunch with her. At the table sat a young man drinking a cup of tea as he glanced at the book. From the look of his stature, face and bright red hair it was easy for Hermione to assume this was one of the two eldest brothers of the Weasely family. The man looked up and smiled curtly at Hermione. "Hello there, y'must be Hermione," the man stated as he stood, walking to shake her hand. At this Mrs Weasely jumped slightly, turned, and smiled brightly. Before the elder brother could reach her, Hermione was already wrapped in an embrace from the Weasely mother, who smiled tenderly as she did so.
"Oh its so lovely to see you, dear! Come, meet my eldest, Charlie," Hermione smiled and finally shook his hand, just as the twins walked in.
"See youve met Charles," Fred piped in. "Shame you couldn't meet William."
"He figured you missed us, and so bravely gave you his ticket so you could spend time with your favourite lads," George added, batting his eyes. Mrs Weasely shushed the two and shooed them with her hand.
"Pay no attention to them, Bill is far too busy in Egypt to make the event, and we were so happy you could take the invitation," Mrs Weasely said. "Anyways- what subjects will you be taking this year, dear?" she asked, to which Ron looked at Hermione suspiciously.
"Around the same as last year, though I've dropped a few extracurriculars," she responded smoothly, to which she smirked back at Ron. "I feel as though I need to focus more on the subjects I excel in if I want to do well in my exams, so it made sense to let go of those I didn't need."
"Do you mean to say that there are subjects the great Hermione Granger can't excel in?!" Fred piped in. At this Hermione blushed, feeling put on the spot about her intellect- which was something she was proud of anywhere else except in front of her friends and their mother.
"Well when I say excel, I mean things that I'm both good at and genuinely passionate about. Not that I'm wasn't passionate about my old classes!" she rushed.
"Hermione's a bloody genius, you know," Ron mumbled to Charlie, "and she knows it too."
"-Anyways! What time is Harry coming, do you know?" She asked this towards Mrs Weasely, hoping for a way out of the conversation and anything that could lead to her seeming too arrogant- or worse, to the question of her classes last year being brought up.
"Not till tonight, dear. Though I'm not too sure what time considering things like muggle transport can be an awful hassle." The twins looked at their mother with judgement, as if a puzzle had been put together.
"You don't mean to say that you intentionally sent your poor sons to Diagon Alley early, do you?" George started.
"You are a cruel woman, you are," Fred continued. "We could have starved to death waiting for Hermione." at this Ginny, Charlie and Ron shared a cackle, as the twins were truly only gone for an hour.
"Hush now, I know you two well enough to know a bit of standing around would do you good. But that does remind me, how was the trip here, Hermione?" Mrs Weasely asked, but before Hermione could respond, the voice of an all too familiar boy could be heard from the living room.
"Hello?" Harry Potter asked to nobody in particular.
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I'm not sure if this chapter was too long and spread out or not, but I'd appreciate feedback. This is the first thing I've written in years, so it's a bit rough. I hope whoever ends up reading this enjoys it, though.
