A Harry Situation
By Jill Weber/ Jelsemium
Characters copyrighted by J.K. Rowling and used without permission or intent to
make a profit.
Chapter Seven: Siblings and Other Rivals
Evans Siblings:
"PV?" Harry asked.
"For Petunia Victoria," Petunia answered. "And LE for Lily Elizabeth. Our
father insisted that we be named for his favorite flowers. Mother insisted that
we have dignified middle names, in case we wished to use them instead of our
first names. Lily and I always addressed each other by our initials when we
wrote. The few times we wrote," she amended hastily, as if ashamed of admitting
that she wrote to her own sister.
Harry reached out and touched the bulky packages. "She left this with you? Was there anything else?"
Petunia frowned and stared off into space. "She sometimes left stuff with our parents," she admitted. "I inherited the house, so there's a small possibility that there's something else of hers up here… except that we've been through everything. I don't remember her leaving anything with me." She scowled. "On the other hand, I didn't remember her leaving this. Now that I see it, I remember finding it on the back porch one morning." Her lips thinned. Her unnatural sister must have used some sort of spell on her to make her forget about the stupid trunk.
Her temper frayed quickly. "She'd dump gear on us, just like your unnatural friends dumped you on our front porch, Potter. Just some extraneous gear to be held onto in the unlikely event that it might prove useful someday."
The pained look on the boy's face told her that she'd scored a hit. She immediately told herself that she didn't regret it. The brat had it coming. She sniffed and said: "Anything else you find of your mother's you may keep." Then she went downstairs to make herself some more Lovely Lemonade.
Hermione and her Mail:
Hermione felt restless. She couldn't settle down to study or even read. Nothing on the telly caught her attention. She opened the window and looked out wistfully. She knew where Ron and Harry were in relation to her house. She'd traced them out on a map, once. In fact, she had a whole file folder stuffed with details of how she could get to either of their houses with no magic and no driver's license. She got the map out and flipped through it, tracing the combination of bus and underground routes that she'd have to take.
Tiring of that, she lay the folder down on the kitchen table and went to fix herself a cup of tea. Uncharacteristically, she forgot about the folder as she went up to her room to brood in private.
She set her tea on her desk and promptly forgot that, too, as she paced around the room. Lacking anything useful to do, she began plotting how to get Harry on the telephone. She walked over to her window and slid it open as she weighed various arguments that might persuade the Dursleys into letting her talk to him. She quickly discarded polite requests and rational debates as being unworkable and was pondering various threats, when something blundered into her window and crashed into the side of her head.
Her shriek naturally attracted the attention of the rest of the Granger household. Her parents came bursting into her room to find their daughter frantically trying to disentangle Pigwidgeon from her hair, while at the same time keep Pigwidgeon out of reach of the vastly interested Crookshanks.
The bandy-legged ginger cat forgot himself to the point where he actually leaped at Pigwidgeon. He missed the tiny owl and got a double pawful of Hermione's bushy hair.
Thrown off balance by the painful assault on her scalp, Hermione fell. The mirror over her dresser shattered, as did her tea cup and several of the aromatherapy bottles and the face of her alarm clock. Hermione was saved from a nasty collision with the floor by her father's timely catch.
Emma Granger grabbed at Crookshanks, only to be rewarded with an armful full of scratches. "Stop that, you!" she scolded. She took a firm grip on the nape of Crookshanks' neck and hustled him out of the room.
Since he had his daughter in his arms already, Rupert was in the perfect position to pluck Pigwidgeon out of her hair.
"I sincerely hope this is good news," he said.
"I'm going to get a warning from the Improper Use of Magic Office," Hermione moaned, looking around at the mess.
"I don't think anyone can blame you for losing it, under the circumstances," Rupert said soothingly.
"Mafalda Hopkirk can," Hermione said gloomily.
"Harry didn't get into serious trouble the first time, did he?" Rupert said gently. "You told me that when that house-elf destroyed that pudding, all he got was a warning, right?"
Hermione took a deep breath and nodded. "Excuse me," she said. "I need to clean this up."
She opened the door to the hall, only to find her mother there, armed with a roll of paper towels and a vacuum cleaner. "Why don't you two go downstairs and have some tea?" she ordered.
Hermione and Rupert obeyed instantly out of an inbred sense of courtesy, not to mention self-preservation.
As her father bustled about making tea one-handed (Pigwidgeon still firmly clutched in the other). The owl from the Office of Improper Use of Magic came, as expected.
"Dear Miss Granger,
We have received intelligence that a burst of psycho-kinetic energy was
released in your house this evening. Please fill out the enclosed form
explaining the situation. As this was clearly a case of involuntary wandless
magic, this is merely a formality to ensure that you are all right.
Hoping the rest of your holidays are more enjoyable,
Mafalda Hopkirk,
Improper Use of Magic Office,
Ministry of Magic"
The form was surprisingly short and to the point. Hermione dutifully filled it out with her name, school, house, year, and the cause of the accident. "An idiotic, hyperactive owl became entangled in my hair while my equally idiotic cat tried to eat it."
"This form wouldn't help if you were in danger, would it?" Rupert said dryly. He gestured at the piece of paper Hermione was filling out with the hand that was still holding Pigwidgeon.
Pigwidgeon hooted happily and tried to nibble on Rupert's fingers.
"No, but I suspect if the owl isn't back by a certain time, we'll be visited by some heavily armed Aurors," Hermione replied. "I've read about cases like that in "The Dawn of Law Enforcement: A History of the Aurors."
Which would explain why she was in such a hurry to finish the paperwork. The owl had a band on its leg, making it easier for Hermione to fasten the form to it. In less than five minutes, the owl was winging its way back to the Ministry.
Hermione fanned herself with Mafalda's letter and said: "If Pigwidgeon's lettr is not an apology, Ron's going to wake up with the fishes, and Mafalda Hopkirk can kiss my…"
"You mean, you'll transfigure him in spite of the Restriction Against Underage Magic?" Rupert asked quickly.
"That's about the size of it, yes," Hermione said grimly. She managed to get the letter off Pigwidgeon's leg with only one tear in it.
"Can I watch?" Rupert asked blandly. "You realize, if you hit him with the frog curse, somebody's going to have to uncurse him with a kiss… or is that the point?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "DAD!" she said.
Rupert grinned. "So, what did he say?"
Hermione sighed and unfolded Ron's letter. "Dear Hermione," she read. "I am very sorry that I got you mad at me. I seem to be picking fights with everybody, but why should I be any different than the rest of my family, right? Percy and Dad are fighting because Percy, that prat, refuses to believe Harry about You-Know-Who. Mum and the twins are fighting about their career choice. (On top of that, the twins have a mysterious backer who's mysteriously given them a thousand galleons and everybody's back is up about that.)
"But enough excuses and I'll say what I should have said the first time. I'm worried about you. I don't like the idea of you traveling when everything's so uncertain and, okay, I'm worried about Viktor's intentions. Sorry, maybe I'm being unfair, but I'm still worried. Please don't be mad at me anymore. Sincerely, Ron."
"Worried about his intentions," Hermione snorted. "Viktor is a gentleman!"
Rupert raised an eyebrow. "He's also a man. No offense, Hermione, but Viktor is an adult. What he's ready for in a relationship, may not be what you're ready for."
Hermione looked at the letter in her hands and sighed. "Well, yes, I thought about that. I like Viktor, as a friend. I want to get to know him better. And yes, part of that is because he's treated my like an attractive woman. I guess I can't blame Ron for being worried," she said. "I'm a little worried myself. I don't want to give Viktor the wrong idea."
"I'm worried, too," Rupert admitted. "Especially since it looks like it's going to be just you and your mother traveling."
Hermione looked up sharply.
"I'm afraid I have to do some surgery that week."
"It can't wait?" Hermione asked.
Rupert shook his head. "I'm afraid it's waited too long already. If it were an adult patient, I'd refer them to another dentist. However, this is a six-year old boy, and he doesn't want anybody but me."
Hermione had a flash of anger, and she started to protest. Then she an image flashed into her mind: an image of a scared boy going to an unfamiliar dentist for surgery… a boy who looked like younger version of Harry. She shook her head at her own selfishness. "Oh, I'm so sorry you can't go," she said. "But I understand." She fiddled with Ron's letter. "Some things are more important than fun and games."
"I wonder if I can get a refund on my Wizarding transport ticket," Rupert asked lightly. "I'll be sure to ask Professor Dumbledore when he arrives tomorrow."
Hermione sighed with relief. Even with the disappointing news that her father couldn't come to Bulgaria with them, she felt like a very great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Dumbledore was coming to set up some protection for her parents, and she and Ron were talking to each other again.
Weasley Siblings:
They'd grabbed their school gear and had retreated from the Burrow when the twins had come home. The twins had been carrying several bulky packages, some of which looked like new robes, and their mother had oh-too-casually asked the twins if they had any preference as to which department in the ministry they went into.
The upcoming argument was obvious, so Ron and Ginny had headed to their favorite spot next to the brook. Sprawled out under the tree, with just enough of a breeze to keep the heat to a bearable level, and just enough noise from the brook and the idling bees to drown out the heated voices from the house, they could pretend for a while that it was an ordinary summer with nothing worse to worry about than matters of the heart.
"I need a girlfriend," Ginny sighed dramatically. She was lying on her back chewing on one piece of grass and tickling Pixie with another.
"Shouldn't that be my line?" Ron asked mildly as he debated how to phrase his letter to Harry.
"Not that kind of girlfriend," Ginny said. "I mean, the kind that I can confide to about boys. Someone who I can trust. Someone who can give me pointers on Harry."
"That rather narrows the field, doesn't it?" Ron asked.
"True," Ginny flipped over onto her stomach and picked up a quill and pulled a recycled scrap of parchment closer. "Dear Hermione," she said.
"Harry," Ron said, writing.
"What? Not 'Dear Harry?'" Ginny smirked.
Ron rolled his eyes at her. "I don't play on that team," he said. He poked his tongue out as he wrote. "Thank you for offering…"
"Ooo, he made you an offer!" Ginny made kissy noises at him.
Ron threw a worm at her. "Go back to your letter," he said. "Harry, thank you for offering to exchange your Firebolt for my sister, but I'm afraid she's not worth that much."
Ginny giggled, threw the worm back at Ron and picked up her quill. "Dear Hermione, I need your advice."
Pixie was obviously feeling neglected, because she rubbed against Ginny's hand, making her splatter ink all over her paper.
Ginny laughed. "You silly!" she said. She rubbed off the splattered ink and alternated writing with tickling her cat. "First, I have to tell you the good news… I have a cat! A lovely, mostly white, calico. Her name is Pixie and she is a present from…"
"My one true love," Ron interposed.
"I thought you didn't play on that team," Ginny responded. To Hermione, she said. "…Harry. His neighbor gave the cat to his aunt, but she couldn't keep her… I mean the Aunt couldn't keep Pixie because his Uncle and Cousin are allergic. So Harry told them that Pixie was a pixie, though she doesn't look anything like a pixie, and they let him send her to me! She's cute, you'll love her!"
Ron sighed as he worked on his own letter. "… offering to let me use your broom to practice on! I'd love to borrow your Firebolt for the summer, but Mum says I can't have it until I finish all my summer essays. So I guess it's time to show Hermione how fast I can write essays. I can't wait to have the Firebolt here! It would only be better if you came with it!"
"How sweet!" Ginny said.
Ron rolled his eyes at her again. "Ginny thinks it's sweet that you offered to lend me your broom… precious baby broomie… to me. I reckon she still fancies you."
"RON!"
He grinned. "That's for calling me 'sweet'," he said. "Don't worry, I didn't really say that you fancied him. I did say you thought it was sweet of him to lend me the Firebolt."
"I meant it was sweet that he's more important to you than the Firebolt."
"I can't say that!" Ron said in scandalized tones. "Besides, wouldn't you rather compliment him than me?"
Ginny nodded acceptance of that and went back to her own letter. Mostly, she wanted to know Hermione's opinion of the tutoring offer. Was Harry flirting? She also wanted to be sure her explanation of dust bunnies didn't sound too stupid.
Ron was chewing on the end of his quill and wishing he had some sugar quills to munch on. Too bad neither of his correspondents was in a position to send him some. Maybe he should write to Seamus.
Back to the letter. He wondered if he should bring up the topic of the twins' money again. Harry hadn't responded to the first mention. Possibly because he didn't have anything to say on the subject. Another possibility was that Harry was the twins' mysterious backer.
In fact, the second choice was the only logical explanation Ron could come up with. He knew the twins had been stone broke on the train. And yet, less than a week later, they suddenly had a nest egg exactly the size of the size of the Tri-Wizard Tournament purse that Harry had been trying to get shut of. Really, how obvious could it be?
He just wondered why Harry hadn't told him about it. However, he couldn't think of a tactful way to bring it up, so he decided to wait until he saw Harry in person. Really, there was nothing so conducive to imparting deep, dark secrets as a heart to heart chat and a really strong headlock.
"Just as well you dropped that note into your soup, mate. I hope you didn't eat the soup! It would probably give you a stomach ache. I was rather rude. Sorry, it's just that everything's been so tense lately that my temper is getting as bad as Snape's. I don't want to think about a play where two teenage lovers die because nobody will listen to them. It hits a little too close to home. See? I do know who Romeo is."
"Besides, everybody knows that Shakespeare was a Squib and that Romeo was in Gryffindor and Juliet was in Slytherin. He just had to change the names of the houses to avoid litigation." That should distract him from this Ron+Hermione nonsense.
Ginny giggled. "Juliet was the Gryffindor!" she protested.
"You misinterpret Shakespeare your way, and I'll misinterpret him mine," Ron said with dignity. He shook his finger at her. Pixie leaped at the moving target. Ron caught her and rolled over on his back so she could sit on his stomach.
"Who's a good kitty, then?" he asked, rubbing her chin.
Pixie purred and Ginny laughed.
"You should write to Hermione," she said.
"I sent her an apology last night," Ron replied, still petting the cat.
"Good show," Ginny said approvingly. She looked longingly at the house. "D'you suppose the fight's over?"
"I'll check," Ron said, bouncing to his feet. "I'm famished. There's ham left from last night. I'll go make us some sandwiches. You want iced tea, lemonade, pumpkin fizz or pomegranate pop?"
"Iced tea, please," Ginny said. She went back to her letter as Ron loped up to the house. After a few minutes, she heard a shout…
"Ginny! Help!"
Ginny burst dramatically into the Burrow. Pixie hard on her heels. "What?" she demanded, sliding to a halt. Pixie crashed into her ankles, but Ginny didn't notice. Her mouth dropped open with horror.
The twins had Ron trapped between them, and were threatening him with what looked like a brown velvet robe.
"Let go of him you bullies! Mum!" Ginny cried, flourishing her quill threateningly.
"Mum's not home," George said. "It's just the four of us."
"I know that the pen is supposed to be mightier than the sword, but what do you intend to do with that, little sister?" Fred panted as he tried to stuff Ron's arm into the 'robe'.
Ginny ran over and started tickling him with the feather quill.
"Hey! No fair!" Fred gasped, letting go of Ron.
Ron shoved George to the floor and sat on him while Ginny and Pixie chased Fred around the living room.
"What's this do then?" Ron demanded. He shoved the brown, velvety cloth into George's face.
"Well, it's supposed to make you look good," George said with as much dignity he could muster while his younger, but taller and heavier, brother sat on his chest. Frankly, playing jokes on Ron had gotten to be quite a chore these days. "It's a dress robe."
"What's the catch?" Ginny demanded.
"No catch," Fred protested.
He made the mistake of looking at Ginny when he spoke, and he tripped over Pixie. This allowed Ginny to jump on his back.
"Really," George said. "We try to make you look good, and this is the thanks we get?"
"Don't you trust us?" Fred asked, trying hard to look hurt and innocent.
"Should we?" Ginny demanded. She thumped him on the head with her fist.
"Well, no, but that's not the point!" Fred complained, trying to cover his head with his arms.
"What is the point?" Ron demanded.
The twins heaved twin sighs.
"Look, we want to go into business," Fred said. "You have to spend money to make money."
"We don't want our family going to fancy parties looking like scarecrows," George threw in. "Our backer wouldn't like it. So we got you and Ginny nice robes to wear to the Yule Ball, which I hear is on for next year."
"Just to make your backer happy?" Ron demanded.
"Well, yes, that's about the size of it," Fred said.
"Speaking of sizes," George threw in. "Why don't you stop squashing us and get up and try on your new robes?"
"We swear on Mum's cookbooks that we aren't up to any mischief right now," Fred added.
Ron and Ginny got up, wands at the ready.
"Well, okay," Ron said, putting his wand down. "Ginny, be ready for anything." And then, he tried on the robe.
###
Author's Notes:
sew2100: Thanks! I think Harry and Ginny would make a good couple, they have so much in common!
Ozma: Thanks for the review! Hope you had a good time at your sister's! ** I love the sound of cliffhangers in the morning! It's the sound of reviews! Yes, there's more than one kind of cliffhanger, isn't there? Glad this one got a scream out of you! ** I have a list of 'Famous People that I Suspect Were Squibs'. Overachievers who set out to show that a lack of 'magic' didn't mean they were useless. Shakespeare is one, Houdini is another. (He couldn't do real magic, so he set out to show that he had his OWN brand of magic.) ** Glad the letter scenes worked. I have fun writing those, it's sort of like MSTing my own story! ** Ginny could give Ron help quickly because she only gave him a general outline. The actual wording is up to Ron. (Note that she's going to 'proof read' it before he mails it.) ** Poor Harry must have some issues, and poor Sirius, too. Got a lovely scene in mind with those two. ** Yes, there's something sinister about Harry's hair, you're beginning to see the pun in this story's title. ** Yes, Harry's getting to be more outspoken as he gets older.
MoNmOn: Thanks for the review! PV is Petunia Victoria, LE is Lily Elizabeth.
Female Fred: Well, there are worse rooms than the attic, though there are probably nicer attics than this one. At least it's bigger than the crawl space we have in our home! (Poor Harry, I can just see Petunia and Vernon putting Harry in the crawlspace.) ** I'll be showing the contents of the trunk, never fear!
shdurrani: Thanks! I intend to keep this going!
katrina: Yes, Petunia was rather civil in this chapter. I figure that one thing that Petunia and Harry have in common is curiosity, for all that Petunia tries to stifle hers (and Harry's and probably Dudley's, too.)
Temporary Insanity: Thanks! I thought that sometimes the best way to deal with an insult is to not hear it. Especially when you have reason to believe that the insult was not sincere.
Chary: Don't worry about getting behind, it happens to everybody. (Especially around this time of year.) This holiday season was unusual for me because I actually had everything finished by noon on Christmas Eve. Unusual not to be sitting under the Christmas tree wrapping presents while everybody else is at church or asleep. ** I think the scariest thing about Petunia and Vernon is that they're so convinced that they're doing the 'right thing.' ** I think the thing I like most about Molly is that she'll always do what she can to help, even if all she can do is knit a sweater. ** Yep, Ron's developing relationship with Hermione is making him sensitive. However, I don't see that he'll stop teasing his siblings over having the same sort of problems. ** Re: "'The whinging cry of *all* brothers, wizard or Muggle!' Actually, I think it's the whinging cry of all elder siblings, male or female, Muggle or Wizarding! ** Well, the cockroaches you see on T.V. series are likely to be a *tad* exaggerated. But the feeling they engender are probably spot on.
Pudadingding: Yes, my mother told me to not bleed on the carpet. It may be, as you said, an attempt to get my mind off the fact that I was bleeding rather profusely. (Enough that I needed stitches, in fact.) I like that theory. ** Thanks, I think there has to be more to the Dursleys than Rowling has shown so far. I can come close to feeling sympathy for Petunia, so I thought I'd use her some more. ** Thanks, my first cat was named Pixie. I decided to use it as a cat name when Emeraldd Star issued at challenge over at GryffindorTower.net to use the line: "Hello little pixie. Can you use your pixie magic to get Harry interested in me?"
Pseudonym Sylphmuse: Thanks for the reviews! Your Ginny stories are adorable! ** Thanks, I try to keep things from being to grim. ** Actually, Tatiana Potter is Harry's grandmother (his father's mother.)
Chocolate Muse: Thanks! Right now Molly and Dumbledore are having problems with Harry's grey hairs. Harry's just annoyed. ** Not sure how long this story will wind up. I'm expecting at least twenty chapters to get through summer.
Alla : Thanks! I'm trying to update this fast. Harry wasn't at all happy in Book 4, when he and Ron were on the outs. I figured he's going to try to avoid such fights in the future. ** I thought the idea of Shakespeare being a Squib made as much sense as Bacon writing all of Shakespeare's works. ** I think I've said that poor Harry getting white hairs was inspired by my own experience. I started getting white hairs when I was sixteen. And I only had algebra to deal with. ** It's sad that children get robbed of their childhood because of war. ** Humor is not something that's likely to be left out of my stories. I have a very active sense of humor. (Sorry, humour.)
Christy: Thanks for the review! I'm updating as fast as I can. In the meantime, you can check out my other Harry Potter stories. I just added an epilogue to my "Harry Potter and the Bookwyrm" story, plus I have my As-Sorted Marauders, Planning Ahead and Keeping in Touch. I also have a collaboration with Ozma, as you probably know.
Ian : Thanks for the review! Don't worry about when you read it, they're going to be around for a while! Reviews are always welcome! ** I'm sorry that Harry getting sick makes you feel bad. Sorry to say that things are going to get worse before they get better.
VenusDeOmnipotent: Thanks for the compliments! I try to find a nice balance of humor and angst and action. Glad you found my stories to your taste! (Heck, I'm glad you found my stories at all! It's not easy for any one particular writer to find an audience. I try to help out my favorite writer's by putting them in my favorites list and/or advertising them in my profile.)
Nightw2: don't worry about being busy. I know exactly how that works! Glad you like my story!
A. Lee: Yep, this story is getting updated almost at Ozma-like speed. Lily addressed Petunia by her first and middle initials. They were both married at the time, so Lily would be LEEP and Petunia would be PVED.
Kyle785: Hi! Thanks for the compliments! I'm working on this as fast as I can!
Lady Pheonix Gryffindor: Thanks for the review! Harry is under a lot of stress and it's beginning to have some physical effects on him.
