Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 5
When You're Older: Have Some Fun.
(Day 2)
Chapter 3
So it was decided, for two days Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny would have some fun-filled action, they weren't so likely to forget. Ginny loved her idea. 'At least this will distract everyone from all this distress from him so much has happened in the last four years. And more is sure to come'
--------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4
"Is that the little bit of reading you're doing about, well" Ron tired to spit out.
"No, Ron. I told you, didn't I? I already feel better." Hermione lightly touched his hand and looked into his eyes. "I trust you, Ron Weasley."
-------------------------------------------------
The next morning, Ron was very eager to being Ginny's "Fun Day 2: Wizard Chess Tournament." The contest involved the whole family, Harry and Hermione. (Well okay, only the Weasleys that actually still lived at the Burrow.) Ginny had found a muggle chart for their tournament and thought it was quite interesting, she made a chart for this one as well.
The games began with two games being played at once time, George and Mrs. Weasley began to play their game in the Kitchen, while Harry and Ginny sat down with their pieces and board in the living room. After they were to finish their games, Fred and Ron would go to the kitchen and the Mr. Weasley vs. Hermione match would be played in the living room.
Harry sat on the carpet after he had helped Ron move a small 'coffee table' into the living room. Ron stayed to watch the game. Hermione wasn't sure if it was because Ron wanted to encourage Harry, critique him, make fun of Ginny, make sure Harry didn't touch his little sister, or perhaps out of interest Hermione decided it was probably a big mix of all of them.
Ginny stood between the open area that divided the kitchen and the living room. She ginned and giggled a little before speaking with enthusiasm and rose both hands, as if she was Dumbledore before giving his yearly start-of-term speech. "Let the Fun Day, WPG Wizard Chess Tournament begin!" Ginny slightly skipped over to her table with Harry and sat on the carpet across from her opponent, and her crush. Ginny looked at him, and gave a mental sigh.
"Ginny? Hello?" Ron waved his face in front of her face.
"Wha-?" She began, and then it dawned on her that she was staring at Harry. She mumbled and looked down to hide her flushed face. 'Get a grip Ginny! Just start playing, you'll be fine. He'll think nothing of it' She looked back up. "Sorry 'bout that. I was uh-remembering some of my uh-moves in my head from my last game, you know." She smiled.
"Right." Ron rolled his eyes.
"Should we start then?" Harry changed the subject.
"Hey, I want to see this too" Hermione said as she walked into the room, her fluffy brown hair bouncing slightly.
-------------------------------------------------
"Your turn Harry," Ginny stated.
"It's getting down to the final moves," Ron explained to the motionless air.
"Thank you tournament announcer, Ron." Hermione said sarcastically.
"You're welcome, tournament spectator, Hermione." He replied, matching her tone.
Ginny looked intensely at the board, as if she were trying to memorize the wood markings. She sighed. Hermione and Ron drew their attention to the game.
"Well Harry you're pretty good" Ginny smiled. "I'm getting as mentally beat as I do with Ron!" She laughed and moved a piece.
"Mentally beat?" Harry laughed as well. "I don't know if I've ever beaten someone's mentality before."
"You do every day, you just don't know it" Ginny whispered, but everyone could hear it. Ginny noticed their faces of apprehension from her verbal acknowledgement of her feelings. She then cursed herself, realizing she had actually said it out loud
"Hey, Ron?" Hermione suggested, why don't we go check on your Mum and George?"
"Why? I wanted to watch the rest of-oomph!" Judging by Ron's reaction, Hermione guessed she had nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, a little harder then she had intended. "Okaysure." Ron managed to breathe out. Hermione left the room, Ron tagging along, mumbling something about, "not fairstupid girlsow, pain wanted to see chess"
-------------------------------------------------
"I meant what I said Harry" Ginny said softly and commanded her chess piece.
"I know" Harry replied, hoping this wouldn't go on much longer. It was too awkward for him. 'I just want to play chess, not the part of the dream-boy idol.'
"Harry, please" Ginny explained slowly and cautiously. "I know this is weirdI-I know it's weird becauseyou know how I feelI'm sure of it." Ginny surprise herself at how calm she managed to be while finally confirming her assumed feelings for Harry.
'Oh boy' Harry thought. "Yeah" He mumbled softly.
Ginny noticed his uncomfortable expression, and was deeply hurt. She spoke, faking some transparent cheerfulness. "Well um how about we get back to playing, huh?" She smiled. But she did not knowing her disappointment was very apparent to a certain green-eyed hero, it made him feel extremely guilty. "Sure"
'Thank you Ginny' Harry sighed. 'I'm sorry, but right now I can't deal with thisplus, I rather keep Ron as a friend for now, and not a private investigator out to find my every mistake.' Harry spoke to her, this time out loud, "Ginny, it's your move."
-------------------------------------------------
The games continued and the winners were filled in the next set of people were about to begin. Harry had won against Ginny after all and George was beaten by his mother rather easily.
Fred, knowing that George had lost, forfeited to Ron and the two twins went off to experiment with the 'needed materials' they had bought the previous day in Diagon Alley. And what surprised them all was that Mrs. Weasley actually let them goHermione noticed this was followed by a happy grin and a wink, she wondered if Ron noticed too. 'I'll ask him later.' She assured herself. However, later, by their Mum's request, they would get the quidditch stuff ready. So while Hermione faced Mr. Weasley, Ron was to battle his Mum at chess.
Hermione wits were apparently no match for Mr. Weasley. 'Either I'm really good, or Mr. Weasley is just not good at chess' She thought to herself. 'Maybe he's letting me win so he can leave to go to his workshop filled with muggle appliances' In the end Hermione won within a half an hour, which made her particularly suspicious.
Ron, on the other hand, was having a hard time trying to out-smart his quick-witted mother. Hermione joined them in the kitchen after finishing her match with Mr. Weasley, whom apparently, (as predicted by Hermione) was in quite a hurry to leave
"Oh don't fuss Ron dear, you shouldn't expect any less from your ol' chess champion Mum!" Hermione heard as she entered the room. (She seems to be doing a lot of 'entering')
"Sorry, what was that?" Hermione inquired.
"Oh Hermione, are you finished already?" Hermione nodded. "Well I was just telling Ron about my times at Hogwarts. I'm no average Mum, you know." She winked. "I won the Gryffindor House Chess Championship, only in my third year and then again in my sixth!" She smiled softly, apparently strolling down 'Memory Lane.' She sighed happily and mumbled; Hermione again heard the words, "the trans training"
She gave a quick worried look to Ron and he simply gave her a small nod accompanied by a gentle smile of certainty.
They proceeded with the tournament once againHermione beat Harry in one good move. A move Harry had recognized from a past game with his red-headed best friend Harry guessed Hermione got the hint from a smile and wink, things Harry knew Ron wouldn't have wanted him to see. Ron still denied any liking to Hermione greater than friends, but Harry disagreed.
-------------------------------------------------
"And so the championship game begins! Hermione versus Ron!" Ginny announced. She, her Mum and Harry also gathered around to watch, but after the first hour, and about 20 minutes of bickering between he two opponents, everyone had cleared out of the kitchen.
While they were into the second hour of their game, and nearing the end, suddenly a blur of gray feathers came crashing though the kitchen window and toppled the chess pieces off the board.
"Errol!" Hermione cried.
Ron beamed, (for once he was proud of his ruddy owl) "too bad we can't finish the game Hermione, guess we'll have to start over."
"Oh no we won't. That will cut into out studying time."
"Oh dear me, what shall we do?!"
"Well Ron, don't you know any charms for replacing the pieces? I'm sure your mother does, she is after all a past Hogwarts chess champion, as she told us in the kitchen. I can't believe you never told me, your Mum is quite impressive."
"I didn't really know myself how great at chess she was. It must be a genetic trait, that only I have of course!
Hermione rolled her eyes. And after a few minutes of more arguing Ron performed the chess piece replacement charm.
-------------------------------------------------
Hermione sighed and leaned back in chair. "Say it Ron." She smiled.
Ron's eyes glimmered, and he tossed his head backwards, red hair flying out of his face. "Checkmate."
"You win." Hermione smiled again. "And now for some good study time before quidditch!" She beamed with pleasure.
-------------------------------------------------
Ginny giggled. 'Fourth time, Ron.' Harry saw it too.
Ron was caught gazing at across the table; she was in a cute pose indeed. Her hand lightly placed under her chin and her head slightly tilted. Her brown bushy hair falling over a shoulder, framing the face of a completely oblivious bookworm, Hermione Granger.
Ron noticed he was caught and red quickly crept up to his ears. Harry gave him a smug 'I-always-knew-you-had-a-thing-for-her' look followed by a small chuckle at Ron's defensive reaction. Harry knew that Ron still was unsure himself how he felt, but deep inside, Harry knew Ron would eventually discover what he felt for his best friend. And luckily, for Ron, Hermione was too engrossed in her book to pay any attention to this amusing event.
From this moment on, Ron had a difficult time concentrating on his studies, for two particular reasons. One, he was afraid that either Harry or Ginny would give him away, or two, he kept barely being able to resist looking at Hermione for an extended amount of their study time.
Ginny had a very strong desire to tell Hermione about the whole thing while they walked across the crisp evening grass toward the Quidditch field. However, Ginny knew it was best to let Ron voice his own opinion about the event.
"Hey Fred, George, you have it all set up yet?" Ron called across the field.
"Almost! All we need are the brooms and an idiot brother." Fred laughed.
"Alright, I'll get the brooms, but I think you already count as the idiot brother, Fred. George makes it double." Ron replied.
"Hey! What did I do?" George called in defense.
"You're a twin, you share everything, even insults!" Ginny explained matter-of-factly. Harry chuckled they did share even insults.
-------------------------------------------------
They were in the middle of their Quidditch Game, which wasn't really true to the rules because they only used the quaffel and the two bludgers. (Mrs. Weasley was worried the game would go too long if they used the snitch.) Even still, Harry was having a great time. He had scored three of the four goals against the 'other team,' which consisted of George, Ron, and Hermione. His partners were Fred and Ginny. However, even though Harry was doing well, so was the 'other team.' The two teams were tied at 40 and 40.
"You know," George indicated. "We should actually have names for our team." The quaffel whizzed by him.
"Yeah!" Fred agreed, hitting a bludger toward him. "We'll beFrarynnies!"
"What?" Ginny shouted. "You're a loony!"
"50 to 40!" Ron cried happily in the background.
"Fr-for Fred, ary-for Harry, and nnies- for Ginny." Fred explained.
"I'm not going to be a fairy or farinnie, or whatever, Fred." Harry explained, zooming past to catch the quaffel from Hermione's clumsy drop. (This was the first time she had played after all.)
"Fine." Fred pouted.
"You can be the EverFlames and we can be the SugarQuills." Hermione suggested, she preferred to be helpful with her brain since she wasn't doing so hot playing the game. (Just for my own purposes, there is an EverFlame charm, kay?)
"That works." Ginny said satisfied.
"Great" Harry sarcastically commented smiling. "I'm a sugary feather penmaybe I should have stayed as a fairy."
-------------------------------------------------
At the end, as they slowly landed each of their booms on the ground. The sun was setting against the lush, green horizon. George and Fred went up to Harry and shook his hand. Hermione looked off into the distance, remembering her last experience with a beautiful sunset, just last week.
"Good game there Harry." George stated.
"One of our best home-games ever, I'd say." Fred grinned.
"Yeah, it was a close one too." Harry replied. "I'm surprised Hermione pulled of that last goal!"
"It was pretty amazing, wasn't it Hermione?" Ron joined in. "Hermione?" He walked over to her. "Hello?"
"Oh, sorry Ron." She spoke softly. "What were you saying?"
"We were just talking about your ten points at the end of the game, Hermy-kins!" George informed her, now giving her a nickname, with the same ending as Ron's. ;)
"Great" She laughed. "Now I've got a Weasley nickname too."
They laughed all the way up to the house, reminiscing about their game and their wonderful "Fun Day", filled with friendship and 'bonding'. As the happy, teenage group neared the Burrow, Hermione noticed the lights were all off and it was unusually quiet. (One could usually hear Mr. Weasley in his workshop, or the dishes being magically scrubbed.) She looked to Ron and Harry with concern and worry written across her face. They gave her a questioning glance back. Hermione's heart began to beat faster and faster'what could have happened?' She panicked inside her head.
"Wizards don't have power-outages, do they?" Hermione asked hopefully.
"No, of course not," Fred Weasley explained. "That kind of magic only goes off when it's commanded to."
A/N: Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger therebut trust me it's not what you think hehehe and Irk! EVIL mid-term exams oh well once they're over I'll be happy and I'll be able to write more! Yay! Please read and REVIEW! :) --Jishka