Chapter 3-Surprises at the Burrow

The next day, Hermione woke up early, and stuck a load of laundry into the washer. Then she ran upstairs, took her shower, ran downstairs, ate breakfast, moved the laundry to the dryer, ran upstairs, brushed her teeth, ran to her room, did Transfiguration homework, ran back downstairs to put a new load of laundry in the washer, brought the clean ones upstairs, did Potions homework, and spent the rest of her day doing laundry and her homework.

At 4:00, Hermione folded all of her now clean laundry into her trunk. Then she piled in her books and supplies, and on top of it all, she put the money her parents had given her. By the time she was done, the clock said 4:45. Hermione marched downstairs for a small snack, having starved herself since breakfast, and made her good-byes to her parents.

"I'll see you next year, at graduation. You will be there, right?"

"We wouldn't miss it for the world. Now you go have fun."

Hermione gave each of her parents a hug and a kiss on the cheek, before throwing the green powder in the fireplace and shouting "The Burrow!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hermione! You're here! Great!"

Those were the first words she heard when she stepped out of fireplace at the Burrow.

"Hello Ron. Is Harry here yet?"

"Oh yeah, Larry's upstairs unpacking."

Hermione looked startled, before convincing herself that she was merely hearing things. She missed him too much.

"Hey Ron, could you help me carry my stuff up to Ginny's room?"

"Sure Herbie, I'll take your trunk."

Hermione blanched. "Ron, what did you just call me?"

"Hermie. I got tired of saying 'Hermione' all the time. It's so long."

She looked skeptical, but hurried upstairs with Crookshanks.

So after Ron put her trunk in his sister's room, Ron ran upstairs to talk to Harry.

"Step 1 of the 'Get Hermione and Harry together' plan has begun."

Harry grinned, and continued unpacking his trunk.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When the two boys came down for dinner, Hermione was helping Mrs. Weasley set the table.

"Oh here they are dear! Now you go on and have fun. I don't need your help anymore. Thank you Hermione."

Hermione finished with what she was doing, and the trio went out to the back.

Harry flopped into a lawn chair. "So Hermione, what have you been up to these three days?"

She blushed, causing Harry to raise his eyebrow. "Well, my parents bought me a computer. So basically what I've been doing is talking to people in met in a chat room."

"Anyone interesting?" After all these years, Ron had finally learned to stop asking questions about the Muggle devices Harry and Hermione used on break.

She blushed again, causing Ron to sit up with interest. "Go on. With a blush like that, you can't stop now."

Hermione sighed. "Fine. Well, I was in a chat, and there was this guy whose screen name was Lighteningbolt. The name he gave me was Larry."

"And what in the world made him so interesting?" Harry asked.

"Well…umm…well…" Hermione went even redder. "He's really sweet. He defended me from some people who were being rude to me, and he was always interested in what I had to say. AND he was doing homework on the first day of vacation."

Ron got the idea. "Wow…I can't believe he'd do homework on the first day back from school, but that's not important. What's important is that Hermione's got a crush on Larry!"

Hermione mumbled into her hair, that was now trying to hide her Ron's-hair red face. "And if I do?"

While trying to contain her blushing, behind her mane of hair, Hermione completely missed the looks Ron and Harry were giving each other.

1 End Chapter 3

Muahaha! I got 13 reviews from just the FIRST CHAPTER!! I'm so happy!!!

Anyway, keep up the reviews!!!

~Herbie