The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
"Ron..." whispered Ginny. Percy looked green in the face, George amused and Arthur's expression was unreadable.
'Maybe in retrospect', Hermione later mused, 'it was a bad idea to leave the dinner table so shortly after each other, especially since we never came back with the food.'
In fact they never made to the kitchen. Ron had caught up with Harry in front of stairs and after a small and silent conversation - a smile here, a look up the stairs there and a nod at the end - they sneaked off together to Ron's room.
Hermione shortly joined them there, her eyes shining with amusement and a little bit more, when she surveyed the picture the two boys - her two boys - presented. Hair, clothes (even socks) a mess, ears red, Harry's glasses lying abandoned next to Hedwig's cage.
Harry looked up and Ron followed suit to bestow an inviting smile on their voyeur. 'A girl has to do what a girl has to do,' thought Hermione, smiling back and soon finding herself enveloped by freckled arms and pale, callused hands.
Fifteen minutes later Mrs Weasley suspected a secret kidnapping plot and sent off her remaining family with the words "No food in this house will be eaten until they have been found." (Mr Weasley, remembering the 1985 Ginny Scare, knew that this was no empty threat.)
Percy was the one to look through the half-open door first and upon his apparent shock Arthur, George and Ginny, suspecting the worst, gathered around him.
After ten seconds that seem to last forever Mrs Weasley's voice from the living room - "Have you found them, dear?" - woke everyone from their stupor. Arthur fussily averted his eyes, murmured something so low under his breath that only the most imaginative listener could have interpretated it as "Molly... food," Percy almost splinched himself by trying to immediately apparate downstairs and George laughed, took Ginny's hand and started to talk about "flowers and bees".
It was Hermione who broke the silence between the three of them. "At least we weren't in the nude."
"Ron..." whispered Ginny. Percy looked green in the face, George amused and Arthur's expression was unreadable.
'Maybe in retrospect', Hermione later mused, 'it was a bad idea to leave the dinner table so shortly after each other, especially since we never came back with the food.'
In fact they never made to the kitchen. Ron had caught up with Harry in front of stairs and after a small and silent conversation - a smile here, a look up the stairs there and a nod at the end - they sneaked off together to Ron's room.
Hermione shortly joined them there, her eyes shining with amusement and a little bit more, when she surveyed the picture the two boys - her two boys - presented. Hair, clothes (even socks) a mess, ears red, Harry's glasses lying abandoned next to Hedwig's cage.
Harry looked up and Ron followed suit to bestow an inviting smile on their voyeur. 'A girl has to do what a girl has to do,' thought Hermione, smiling back and soon finding herself enveloped by freckled arms and pale, callused hands.
Fifteen minutes later Mrs Weasley suspected a secret kidnapping plot and sent off her remaining family with the words "No food in this house will be eaten until they have been found." (Mr Weasley, remembering the 1985 Ginny Scare, knew that this was no empty threat.)
Percy was the one to look through the half-open door first and upon his apparent shock Arthur, George and Ginny, suspecting the worst, gathered around him.
After ten seconds that seem to last forever Mrs Weasley's voice from the living room - "Have you found them, dear?" - woke everyone from their stupor. Arthur fussily averted his eyes, murmured something so low under his breath that only the most imaginative listener could have interpretated it as "Molly... food," Percy almost splinched himself by trying to immediately apparate downstairs and George laughed, took Ginny's hand and started to talk about "flowers and bees".
It was Hermione who broke the silence between the three of them. "At least we weren't in the nude."