Chapter Two
Old Life meets New Life
Sirius Black sat in a corner of The Leaky Cauldron sipping Butterbeer. He had almost tied up all the loose ends, except for just the one. He figured he should sort it out before Harry moved in. The problem was that he didn't know how to sort things out.
Chrys.
He had been putting off seeing her until he worked out what he wanted to do and to do that he had to put his life in perspective.
Chrystal Àille had been a year below the Marauders at Hogwarts and had been more of a friend to Lily than to the boys, despite having known the boys most of their lives. She was an extremely clever witch, and in a way Hermione very much reminded Sirius of her. She had been infatuated with Sirius, since she had met him as a young girl; she had always been following him around. At first it was good having a kind of slave who would do anything for you. But then when she came to school, his mates had started giving him a hard time about, his admirer, he had started making fun of her in a kind teasing manner, but enough to deter her from admiring him. Then Sirius had fallen for Lily, and his eyes had been so clouded by Lily, that he hadn't seemed to notice her. When he saw her a Lily and James wedding he had been shocked to see that his little admirer had grown up. They had started a relationship that never really went anywhere by the time that Lily and James had been killed.
Chrys was one of the Aurors who had responded the night Lily and James were killed. She had arrived to find her best friend and one of her good friends dead. She had believed that Sirius had been their secret keeper and had had a real go at Sirius when she saw him later that night. Sirius pleaded his case but she had been too emotional to listen. Then the next day, when Peter had screamed that Sirius had killed James and Lily, then killed 13 Muggles and faked his own death, she hadn't known what to believe. He knew that she had been extremely disillusioned with the Ministry when he was sent to Azkaban without a trial. She had come to see Sirius, just the once in Azkaban, telling him that she was thinking of quitting her career as an Auror, playing Quidditch for a living and trying to search for a loophole in the law to free Sirius. Sirius had been speechless. He knew she was having trouble coming to terms with what had happened, but he felt her course of action was perhaps a bit drastic. Not that he wouldn't mind being free. That was the last time he had seen her. She had written him to tell him that she was going to remain an Auror.
'There are still so many battles to be fought and I for one want to be able to help fight them. I hope you understand Sirius, but there are important things at stake even though Voldemort has fallen' Yes, Sirius had understood, and she had been right by saying that there were still fight's to be fought, given Voldemort's return, but by staying an Auror, Sirius felt she had given up him. 'An Auror just can't be with a convicted criminal. I do love you, but you understand, don't you? I know you're innocent and if you ever are free, then maybe, but for now.'
He was still resentful of the fact that she had thrown everything away and had never come and seen him again.
It had been because she was an Auror that Sirius hadn't dared approach her while she was on the run. Although he knew she believed he was innocent, he didn't think she would have any qualms about turning him in. He could have been wrong, but he didn't want to take the risk. Then at the hearing, she had flung her arm's around Sirius, kissed him passionately, but hesitantly and blankly stared at him saying
'Please see me again Sirius'
Up until that moment when he had seen her, he had convinced himself that he was going to end it if she still had any feelings for him. It would have been unfair on him to drag it out any longer.
Yet, when he saw her that day he had been stunned. She was no longer the little bookworm he remembered from their school days; or the smart Head Girl who had been stunning as Lily's maid of honour; instead she had become surprisingly beautiful. Her blues eyes glistened at the sight of Sirius, her caramel coloured hair shone in the sunlight. She looked amazing. Sirius had forgotten the way she made him feel, and he had remembered back to when she had been the centre of his attention, back when they were children.
Two weeks later, nothing had changed. Sirius did not want to have to live without her, but he needed to know how she felt. Things were still so awkward.
Chrystal Àille's hair shone was she walked into The Leaky Cauldron. She spied Sirius in the corner.
'How typical. He's sitting in the corner planning what mischief he can get up to. I wonder what happened to that map of his?'
Seeing Sirius made her heart skip a beat. Even though she was unsure how he felt about her, she knew she loved him. His black hair and twinkling eyes always managed to make her heart skip a beat. She had been hurt by the fact that Sirius had stopped writing to her and that he had not tried to contact her after he had escaped from Azkaban. Even though she was an Auror, he should have known she would not turn him in, and besides, she wanted to know how he had escaped.
She had had to stop visiting him because when the Ministry found out that she had visited him, they had threatened to sack her. She had cared then because she couldn't throw her future away for something that may never be possible. She didn't have anything else to live for when Sirius was gone, just the job. She didn't care what the Ministry thought now. Too many years had been lost and the Ministry was crumpling under the rise of Voldemort. They were being criticised for not sending all the Death Eater's to Azkaban, and for the scandal surrounding Mr Crouch's involvement in freeing his son, a convicted Death Eater. She didn't care to the extent that she was taking a year off and taking up Dumbledore's offer to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. She smiled at the thought of it. Dumbledore seemed to like having Auror's to teach the subject and she definitely needed a break, having been run off her feet in the past couple of years since Voldemort's rebirth.
Chrystal walked over the Sirius and gave him a huge hug.
'I thought you were never going to talk to me again'
Sirius laughed at the thought,
'How could I?' he asked. 'You'd probably arrest me and find someway to punish me by sending me back to Azkaban.'
'That would kind of defeat the purpose wouldn't it,' she mocked.
After a couple of minutes of silence, she spoke up
'Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about.'
Chrystal explained her disillusionment with the Ministry, a story Sirius had heard before. She explained Dumbledore's offer and how she felt like she needed a break from chasing Death Eater's full time, and being at Hogwarts' she felt she might be able to do something useful for Dumbledore.
'Beside's you were never too keen on dating an Auror, if you're being honest Sirius.'
This time Sirius was not struck speechless. He knew all too well what had been happening, Dumbledore had kept him well informed. He imagined the Ministry would have been furious when she'd asked for a year off; she was by far one of the best Aurors out there. He decided now would be an appropriate time to spring some news on her too,
'It's looks like we'll be working together then darling. I've taken up a small position at Hogwarts myself. Not large enough to take up a lot of time, but enough that the Death eater's don't come chasing me and it has me close enough to Dumbledore to keep working on the project!'
Chrystal nodded. She was well aware of what had been going on and was no surprised that Sirius was involved. The two of them became deeply engrossed in conversation, until Sirius suggested that perhaps it was time to leave. He hesitated before he asked her back to his place. Harry would be coming in a couple of days. He wondered about the kind of example he would be setting for him, and the example he should be setting for an almost seventeen year old.
'Oh Chrys,' he said hesitantly
'What?' was the reply, her blue eyes fixated on Sirius.
'Harry is moving in, in a couple of days, we won't have anytime for ourselves really. I know this is moving rather quickly but do you want to come back with me. We can just talk, no pressure.'
'Harry Potter?' was the reply.
'He's my godson remember.'
'I'll come back, but if you try anything on me Sirius Black you'll wish you'd never been born. No pressure hey? I seem to remember that if Sirius Black was involved there's always pressure.' She smiled sheepishly.
They apparated back to Sirius's where he prepared them some fancy drink concoction and they sat down on the couch reminiscing. Things were fine one minute then suddenly the next they became quite awkward. He was sitting there staring at her beautiful eyes wondering hat it would take to pin her down. Suddenly she turned and kissed him with a passion that Sirius had never felt before. Then she turned to him and said;
'That's all you get now Sirius Black, because even though your godson is moving in, I want to pick things up where we left off, not just suddenly advance to a new level. Come over for dinner tomorrow.'
And with that she apparated.
'Women,' Sirius muttered under his breath. 'Why do they like to torture you?'
*~*
Hermione Granger spent that evening in fairly similar fashion to Harry.
Her parents were absolutely ecstatic that she had been named Head Girl that after she had sent off her immediate owl, they had taken her out for a nice fancy dinner to celebrate. She had had to get dressed up and enjoyed the time spent pampering herself. It wasn't often that she got the chance to be spoiled rotten, her parents tried to make an effort when she came home from school, but they weren't always able to given how busy they usually were. They were however extremely proud of their daughter despite the fact that she wasn't going to do medicine at Oxford now. She was treated to a lovely three-course meal, while her parents included her in their discussion of current events, sensing that she had indeed matured while she had been away. When they had returned, Ron's owl Pig flew through her window. It contained a letter and a package from Ron. She opened the letter
Dear Hermione,
Congratulations on your appointment as Head Girl. Ginny received her letter today confirming that she will be a prefect this year, and it said that you and Harry are Head Boy and Girl. Just like Harry's parents, it's kind of strange given that they were the Head Boy and Girl the last time it was two Gryffindors. I know that you were definitely the best candidate. And I hope you two don't both end up dead like them.
Harry will be coming to stay for the last week before school goes back; you're more than welcome to come as well. I hope that you will. I promise to be good.
And Hermione, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being such a git last term. I know that you were right when you said that our relationship was over, and that we wrong to even start it in the first place. I don't want to spoil our friendship, I was just so angry from seeing Ginny with that git in the Charms classroom. Have you told Harry yet? I talked to Ginny about it and I know she had already ended it with Harry, it just seems a bit wrong, but perhaps I'm being overprotective of my little sister.
Please forgive me and let everything go back to normal Love Ron
Inside the package was a small book on past Head Girl's at Hogwarts. He had written her name as the most recent entry.
It was a very Ron present. Thoughtful, something he knew she would appreciate.
'He must be trying to make amends. I didn't want for things to end badly, nor did he, but we just couldn't keep on lying to each other.'
And it kind of happened because they had been spending so much time together, just the two of them because Harry had been running off with Ginny. Also probably because they were both curious, just part of growing up.
She wanted to remain friends with Ron; he had just been so childish in the weeks afterward. If she went to The Burrow, she hoped he would act his age. She was sick of his lusting after her. It would be quite annoying.
She decided to go anyway, and perhaps Ron could come to terms with just being friends before school started. And she was going to have to go to Diagon Alley to get her things and she may as well go with Ron and Harry.
Hermione wrote a reply, confirming that she would come and stay, and thanked Ron for the lovely present. Then she wrote to Harry congratulating him on becoming Head Boy.
After sending off the letters, she had time to think.
She knew that she had to put things in perspective before term started. It would be their final year and Hogwarts and it was time to start making important decisions. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, and even with the record number of O.W.L.s she had received she was extremely nervous about the upcoming N.E.W.T.s. She also needed to work out how she felt about Harry. She knew how she felt about Ron, but given the recent time spent with Harry she wondered if her feelings were changing. She had been there for him when he and Ginny had broken up. Until then Harry had just been Harry, and amazing wizard and friend whom she respected very much. Now she was wondering if it was possible if he was becoming something more. She knew he didn't feel that way about her, so she wanted to be sure before she potentially ruined another friendship. A repeat of the Ron disaster was not high on her priorities considering that she would be taking her N.E.W.T.s this year.
After her day dreaming, Hermione looked around to locate her book. She saw Crookshanks sitting on the desk, leaning over her copy of The Daily Prophet. 'That's odd. I wonder if Half-Kneazles can read? I know that Crookshanks is definitely not an Animagus.'
And with that thought she dug through her books to find her copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
*~*
Ron Weasley was putting away his broomstick after a hard afternoon of Quidditch training. Ron was Quidditch captain for the following year and wanted to make sure that Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, so he had spent the last couple of weeks practicing manoeuvres with Fred and George. Ron had replaced Oliver Wood on the team as Keeper, and then by a stroke of luck they had chosen him as captain, coming with strong recommendations from the twins. The Gryffindor team had not regretted the decision; they had not lost the cup with Ron as captain.
Ron had found out today that Harry and Hermione were Head Girl and Boy.
'I guess they'll be spending more time together,' he thought with a sigh.
Ordinarily Ron would have been jealous of this appointment, but with the amount of time he was spending playing Quidditch, both at school as well as, as the reserve keeper for the Chudley Cannons and trying to come up with strategies for the Gryffindor team, he wouldn't have time for any more responsibility. And if he was honest about it, he really didn't want to spend much time with Hermione on his own. He knew that things would be awkward because he had acted like such a git at the end of last year. And after the whole Ginny fiasco, Ron didn't always feel exactly comfortable around Harry either. That would change when they both came to the Burrow. Ron was going to come clean with both of them and hopefully put everything back on track.
Ron was going to spend most of the summer, when he wasn't playing Quidditch, working for the twins. Fred and George still had had another year at Hogwarts after they had gotten that loan from anonymous tender. They had followed their father's advice to invest the money and had been surprised by the amount of interest they had accumulated. It certainly had been enough to set up their joke store. In fact, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was set up in Hogsmeade, and many Hogwarts students were known to visit there on their Hogsmeade weekends. Somehow, they had managed to con Percy into managing the store. It became custom that Percy would apparate into the store just before closing time (after he had finished his days work at the Ministry), look over the accounts, make sure that the twins were doing everything by the book. Percy had surprisingly loosened up over the past couple of years, it had been the combined efforts of Penelope Clearwater and the offer of Fred and George which made him feel as though they accepted him as part of the family. Percy had continued with his job at the Ministry, but no longer seemed determined to be the youngest ever Minister of Magic.
Ron was looking forward to earning a bit of extra pocket money. He'd be able to afford lots of sweets from Honeyduke's this year.
Old Life meets New Life
Sirius Black sat in a corner of The Leaky Cauldron sipping Butterbeer. He had almost tied up all the loose ends, except for just the one. He figured he should sort it out before Harry moved in. The problem was that he didn't know how to sort things out.
Chrys.
He had been putting off seeing her until he worked out what he wanted to do and to do that he had to put his life in perspective.
Chrystal Àille had been a year below the Marauders at Hogwarts and had been more of a friend to Lily than to the boys, despite having known the boys most of their lives. She was an extremely clever witch, and in a way Hermione very much reminded Sirius of her. She had been infatuated with Sirius, since she had met him as a young girl; she had always been following him around. At first it was good having a kind of slave who would do anything for you. But then when she came to school, his mates had started giving him a hard time about, his admirer, he had started making fun of her in a kind teasing manner, but enough to deter her from admiring him. Then Sirius had fallen for Lily, and his eyes had been so clouded by Lily, that he hadn't seemed to notice her. When he saw her a Lily and James wedding he had been shocked to see that his little admirer had grown up. They had started a relationship that never really went anywhere by the time that Lily and James had been killed.
Chrys was one of the Aurors who had responded the night Lily and James were killed. She had arrived to find her best friend and one of her good friends dead. She had believed that Sirius had been their secret keeper and had had a real go at Sirius when she saw him later that night. Sirius pleaded his case but she had been too emotional to listen. Then the next day, when Peter had screamed that Sirius had killed James and Lily, then killed 13 Muggles and faked his own death, she hadn't known what to believe. He knew that she had been extremely disillusioned with the Ministry when he was sent to Azkaban without a trial. She had come to see Sirius, just the once in Azkaban, telling him that she was thinking of quitting her career as an Auror, playing Quidditch for a living and trying to search for a loophole in the law to free Sirius. Sirius had been speechless. He knew she was having trouble coming to terms with what had happened, but he felt her course of action was perhaps a bit drastic. Not that he wouldn't mind being free. That was the last time he had seen her. She had written him to tell him that she was going to remain an Auror.
'There are still so many battles to be fought and I for one want to be able to help fight them. I hope you understand Sirius, but there are important things at stake even though Voldemort has fallen' Yes, Sirius had understood, and she had been right by saying that there were still fight's to be fought, given Voldemort's return, but by staying an Auror, Sirius felt she had given up him. 'An Auror just can't be with a convicted criminal. I do love you, but you understand, don't you? I know you're innocent and if you ever are free, then maybe, but for now.'
He was still resentful of the fact that she had thrown everything away and had never come and seen him again.
It had been because she was an Auror that Sirius hadn't dared approach her while she was on the run. Although he knew she believed he was innocent, he didn't think she would have any qualms about turning him in. He could have been wrong, but he didn't want to take the risk. Then at the hearing, she had flung her arm's around Sirius, kissed him passionately, but hesitantly and blankly stared at him saying
'Please see me again Sirius'
Up until that moment when he had seen her, he had convinced himself that he was going to end it if she still had any feelings for him. It would have been unfair on him to drag it out any longer.
Yet, when he saw her that day he had been stunned. She was no longer the little bookworm he remembered from their school days; or the smart Head Girl who had been stunning as Lily's maid of honour; instead she had become surprisingly beautiful. Her blues eyes glistened at the sight of Sirius, her caramel coloured hair shone in the sunlight. She looked amazing. Sirius had forgotten the way she made him feel, and he had remembered back to when she had been the centre of his attention, back when they were children.
Two weeks later, nothing had changed. Sirius did not want to have to live without her, but he needed to know how she felt. Things were still so awkward.
Chrystal Àille's hair shone was she walked into The Leaky Cauldron. She spied Sirius in the corner.
'How typical. He's sitting in the corner planning what mischief he can get up to. I wonder what happened to that map of his?'
Seeing Sirius made her heart skip a beat. Even though she was unsure how he felt about her, she knew she loved him. His black hair and twinkling eyes always managed to make her heart skip a beat. She had been hurt by the fact that Sirius had stopped writing to her and that he had not tried to contact her after he had escaped from Azkaban. Even though she was an Auror, he should have known she would not turn him in, and besides, she wanted to know how he had escaped.
She had had to stop visiting him because when the Ministry found out that she had visited him, they had threatened to sack her. She had cared then because she couldn't throw her future away for something that may never be possible. She didn't have anything else to live for when Sirius was gone, just the job. She didn't care what the Ministry thought now. Too many years had been lost and the Ministry was crumpling under the rise of Voldemort. They were being criticised for not sending all the Death Eater's to Azkaban, and for the scandal surrounding Mr Crouch's involvement in freeing his son, a convicted Death Eater. She didn't care to the extent that she was taking a year off and taking up Dumbledore's offer to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. She smiled at the thought of it. Dumbledore seemed to like having Auror's to teach the subject and she definitely needed a break, having been run off her feet in the past couple of years since Voldemort's rebirth.
Chrystal walked over the Sirius and gave him a huge hug.
'I thought you were never going to talk to me again'
Sirius laughed at the thought,
'How could I?' he asked. 'You'd probably arrest me and find someway to punish me by sending me back to Azkaban.'
'That would kind of defeat the purpose wouldn't it,' she mocked.
After a couple of minutes of silence, she spoke up
'Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about.'
Chrystal explained her disillusionment with the Ministry, a story Sirius had heard before. She explained Dumbledore's offer and how she felt like she needed a break from chasing Death Eater's full time, and being at Hogwarts' she felt she might be able to do something useful for Dumbledore.
'Beside's you were never too keen on dating an Auror, if you're being honest Sirius.'
This time Sirius was not struck speechless. He knew all too well what had been happening, Dumbledore had kept him well informed. He imagined the Ministry would have been furious when she'd asked for a year off; she was by far one of the best Aurors out there. He decided now would be an appropriate time to spring some news on her too,
'It's looks like we'll be working together then darling. I've taken up a small position at Hogwarts myself. Not large enough to take up a lot of time, but enough that the Death eater's don't come chasing me and it has me close enough to Dumbledore to keep working on the project!'
Chrystal nodded. She was well aware of what had been going on and was no surprised that Sirius was involved. The two of them became deeply engrossed in conversation, until Sirius suggested that perhaps it was time to leave. He hesitated before he asked her back to his place. Harry would be coming in a couple of days. He wondered about the kind of example he would be setting for him, and the example he should be setting for an almost seventeen year old.
'Oh Chrys,' he said hesitantly
'What?' was the reply, her blue eyes fixated on Sirius.
'Harry is moving in, in a couple of days, we won't have anytime for ourselves really. I know this is moving rather quickly but do you want to come back with me. We can just talk, no pressure.'
'Harry Potter?' was the reply.
'He's my godson remember.'
'I'll come back, but if you try anything on me Sirius Black you'll wish you'd never been born. No pressure hey? I seem to remember that if Sirius Black was involved there's always pressure.' She smiled sheepishly.
They apparated back to Sirius's where he prepared them some fancy drink concoction and they sat down on the couch reminiscing. Things were fine one minute then suddenly the next they became quite awkward. He was sitting there staring at her beautiful eyes wondering hat it would take to pin her down. Suddenly she turned and kissed him with a passion that Sirius had never felt before. Then she turned to him and said;
'That's all you get now Sirius Black, because even though your godson is moving in, I want to pick things up where we left off, not just suddenly advance to a new level. Come over for dinner tomorrow.'
And with that she apparated.
'Women,' Sirius muttered under his breath. 'Why do they like to torture you?'
*~*
Hermione Granger spent that evening in fairly similar fashion to Harry.
Her parents were absolutely ecstatic that she had been named Head Girl that after she had sent off her immediate owl, they had taken her out for a nice fancy dinner to celebrate. She had had to get dressed up and enjoyed the time spent pampering herself. It wasn't often that she got the chance to be spoiled rotten, her parents tried to make an effort when she came home from school, but they weren't always able to given how busy they usually were. They were however extremely proud of their daughter despite the fact that she wasn't going to do medicine at Oxford now. She was treated to a lovely three-course meal, while her parents included her in their discussion of current events, sensing that she had indeed matured while she had been away. When they had returned, Ron's owl Pig flew through her window. It contained a letter and a package from Ron. She opened the letter
Dear Hermione,
Congratulations on your appointment as Head Girl. Ginny received her letter today confirming that she will be a prefect this year, and it said that you and Harry are Head Boy and Girl. Just like Harry's parents, it's kind of strange given that they were the Head Boy and Girl the last time it was two Gryffindors. I know that you were definitely the best candidate. And I hope you two don't both end up dead like them.
Harry will be coming to stay for the last week before school goes back; you're more than welcome to come as well. I hope that you will. I promise to be good.
And Hermione, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being such a git last term. I know that you were right when you said that our relationship was over, and that we wrong to even start it in the first place. I don't want to spoil our friendship, I was just so angry from seeing Ginny with that git in the Charms classroom. Have you told Harry yet? I talked to Ginny about it and I know she had already ended it with Harry, it just seems a bit wrong, but perhaps I'm being overprotective of my little sister.
Please forgive me and let everything go back to normal Love Ron
Inside the package was a small book on past Head Girl's at Hogwarts. He had written her name as the most recent entry.
It was a very Ron present. Thoughtful, something he knew she would appreciate.
'He must be trying to make amends. I didn't want for things to end badly, nor did he, but we just couldn't keep on lying to each other.'
And it kind of happened because they had been spending so much time together, just the two of them because Harry had been running off with Ginny. Also probably because they were both curious, just part of growing up.
She wanted to remain friends with Ron; he had just been so childish in the weeks afterward. If she went to The Burrow, she hoped he would act his age. She was sick of his lusting after her. It would be quite annoying.
She decided to go anyway, and perhaps Ron could come to terms with just being friends before school started. And she was going to have to go to Diagon Alley to get her things and she may as well go with Ron and Harry.
Hermione wrote a reply, confirming that she would come and stay, and thanked Ron for the lovely present. Then she wrote to Harry congratulating him on becoming Head Boy.
After sending off the letters, she had time to think.
She knew that she had to put things in perspective before term started. It would be their final year and Hogwarts and it was time to start making important decisions. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, and even with the record number of O.W.L.s she had received she was extremely nervous about the upcoming N.E.W.T.s. She also needed to work out how she felt about Harry. She knew how she felt about Ron, but given the recent time spent with Harry she wondered if her feelings were changing. She had been there for him when he and Ginny had broken up. Until then Harry had just been Harry, and amazing wizard and friend whom she respected very much. Now she was wondering if it was possible if he was becoming something more. She knew he didn't feel that way about her, so she wanted to be sure before she potentially ruined another friendship. A repeat of the Ron disaster was not high on her priorities considering that she would be taking her N.E.W.T.s this year.
After her day dreaming, Hermione looked around to locate her book. She saw Crookshanks sitting on the desk, leaning over her copy of The Daily Prophet. 'That's odd. I wonder if Half-Kneazles can read? I know that Crookshanks is definitely not an Animagus.'
And with that thought she dug through her books to find her copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
*~*
Ron Weasley was putting away his broomstick after a hard afternoon of Quidditch training. Ron was Quidditch captain for the following year and wanted to make sure that Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, so he had spent the last couple of weeks practicing manoeuvres with Fred and George. Ron had replaced Oliver Wood on the team as Keeper, and then by a stroke of luck they had chosen him as captain, coming with strong recommendations from the twins. The Gryffindor team had not regretted the decision; they had not lost the cup with Ron as captain.
Ron had found out today that Harry and Hermione were Head Girl and Boy.
'I guess they'll be spending more time together,' he thought with a sigh.
Ordinarily Ron would have been jealous of this appointment, but with the amount of time he was spending playing Quidditch, both at school as well as, as the reserve keeper for the Chudley Cannons and trying to come up with strategies for the Gryffindor team, he wouldn't have time for any more responsibility. And if he was honest about it, he really didn't want to spend much time with Hermione on his own. He knew that things would be awkward because he had acted like such a git at the end of last year. And after the whole Ginny fiasco, Ron didn't always feel exactly comfortable around Harry either. That would change when they both came to the Burrow. Ron was going to come clean with both of them and hopefully put everything back on track.
Ron was going to spend most of the summer, when he wasn't playing Quidditch, working for the twins. Fred and George still had had another year at Hogwarts after they had gotten that loan from anonymous tender. They had followed their father's advice to invest the money and had been surprised by the amount of interest they had accumulated. It certainly had been enough to set up their joke store. In fact, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was set up in Hogsmeade, and many Hogwarts students were known to visit there on their Hogsmeade weekends. Somehow, they had managed to con Percy into managing the store. It became custom that Percy would apparate into the store just before closing time (after he had finished his days work at the Ministry), look over the accounts, make sure that the twins were doing everything by the book. Percy had surprisingly loosened up over the past couple of years, it had been the combined efforts of Penelope Clearwater and the offer of Fred and George which made him feel as though they accepted him as part of the family. Percy had continued with his job at the Ministry, but no longer seemed determined to be the youngest ever Minister of Magic.
Ron was looking forward to earning a bit of extra pocket money. He'd be able to afford lots of sweets from Honeyduke's this year.