Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, so therefore I am not rich enough to sue
over a silly little fanfiction.
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After dinner, Fred and George had insisted on showing Harry some of their new inventions. They led Ron and Harry and Ginny into their room which was remarkably cleaner than the way their dormitory looked at Hogwarts. The Weasley twins were known for being huge mess-makers, so Harry wasn't sure what exactly he was looking at as he stepped into the small room they shared and glanced around at the neatly made beds and the freshly ironed clothes hanging in the closet.
"Wow," said Harry, impressed. "Why's everything so clean in here?"
George laughed. "Well, if we keep the room spotless, Mum never comes in to muddle around and try and fix things. Keeping things tidy decreases our chances of having our new inventions discovered by nearly eighty-six percent."
Harry didn't even bother asking how they had come up with such an exact percentage. He simply walked across the room and sat down on Fred's bed. Ginny sat across from him on George's bed, and Ron stayed standing by the doorway to keep an ear peeled for signs of either of the adult Weasleys.
Fred and George looked at each other and then George reached down and pulled up a loose floorboard, not unlike the one in Harry's room on Privet Drive. Harry craned his neck to see what was in it, but Fred stepped in front of him to block him.
"Uh-uh-uh, Potter," he said smiling. "No peeking. There's still many works in progress down there. You only see what we show you."
Harry nodded. Fair enough. "So, I saw the Weasley's Own Special Sports Gel. Pretty good," he said approvingly.
Fred continued to smile. "Well, we weren't sure it'd work exactly. There's no one here to try it on, you know, because of the Weasley immunity. Actually, we were thinking of turning your foot into a football when you showed up, but Ron threatened he tell Mum if we did."
Harry smiled at Ron who was grinning at him from the doorway. "Thanks, Ron."
Ron just shrugged. "No problem."
"Anyway," continued George, "Ginny was actually the one to come up with the idea to test it on Dudley. She must have heard us tell the tale of the Ton Tongue Toffee a million times." He smiled at his little sister. "So, she thought it up all on her own. Reckon she's gonna be alright, this one."
Ginny couldn't seem to stop smiling at all that day. Usually when Harry was around, she was an absolute mess. She had a habit of breaking things out of nervousness when she was around him, but the day had passed without so much as a broken tea cup. In fact, she was being rather peculiar. Different somehow- bold and witty.
Before anyone could speak another word, though, a loud pecking was heard at the window. All four sets of eyes followed the sound and noticed a tiny brown owl pecking away furiously at the glass. Ron rolled his eyes as he crossed the window and let her in, muttering, "Stupid Pig," the whole way.
Pigwidgeon, or Pig as Ron loathingly called it, was a tiny, overly-excited owl which Ron had gotten the year before. The moment the window was open, Pig flew in hurriedly and began circling the room in a horrid fit of attention-needing. It was George who reached up and untied the letter which it was holding. He glanced at it and threw it at Harry.
Harry looked down at his lap at the letter and at once recognized the handwriting of Hermione Granger, his and Ron's other best friend from Hogwarts. "It's from Hermione," he said.
Ron immediately spun around and seated himself beside Harry. He grabbed the letter and said, "Here. Let me read it."
Harry raised an eyebrow at him, but nonetheless sat quietly while Ron read the letter aloud.
Dear Ron and Harry,
I hope this reaches you both together, so that I don't have to write two separate letters. Things are good with me. How about with the two of you? I'm in Bulgaria at the moment, visiting Viktor. I'm having a lovely time, and I hope that the two of you are having brilliant summer holidays as well.
Harry noticed Ron's voice take a disgusted sort of tone when he read the part about Bulgaria and Viktor. Looking up at Harry, he rolled his eyes. "Lovely time? Yeah, I'm sure she is," he said sarcastically. "Following that nutter around with huge puppy dog eyes going, 'Oh, Viky! How simply lovely!' Please!" Ron had taken to imitating Hermione's voice, however poorly, on the last part. Rolling his eyes one more time, he returned them to the letter.
I'm excited about the new start of term. I've already started reading our Fifth Year Book of Spells. It looks as though there will be some terribly difficult ones this year. Should be great fun!
Ron snorted through laughter. "That girl has got serious mental problems! She's reading her school books already, and we're not even half-way through holiday yet! And great fun?! Harry, how did we ever manage to make Hermione Granger as a friend?"
It was true. Hermione was nothing at all like Harry and Ron. Both Ron and Harry were just as content dozing in class as they were listening. Hermione, however, wouldn't miss a class if you offered to pay her fifty galleons. She was never seen without a huge load of books, and she spent as much time in the library as most of the students spent in their own dormitories. But somehow, the three of them had wound up as best friends. Harry, himself, didn't understand it half the time, but the fact was that having the girl who was top of every class as your best friend came in quite handy sometimes.
Ron continued the letter.
Anyway, I hope that this letter finds you alright. I sent it back with Pigwidgeon after Ron sent me the note to let me know that Harry was coming to stay with him. We all know how that owl is, though. Ron, I don't mean to speak ill of your owl, but it is quite dumb, isn't it?
Ron let out a small gasp. He appeared to have taken great offense to this. "What's she calling dumb? She's the one with that idiotic cat, isn't she?" Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, was anything but idiotic, but Harry chose not to comment. He urged Ron to finish the letter.
The main reason I'm writing, though, is to inform you both that I won't be seeing you until September 1st on the Hogwarts Express. Once I leave Bulgaria, Mum and Dad want me to go to Ireland with them for the rest of the holiday. There's a dentist convention there, and Mum is quite insistent that I go with them. We won't be done there until the end of August, and that will just barely leave me enough time to get to train.
Ron couldn't hide the look of disappointment that covered his face as he read that. "She was supposed to come stay with us a few weeks before school started." He wrinkled his nose angrily. "But she wasn't too busy to run off to Bulgaria, now was she?"
Harry chose not to comment.
I really do hope that you two have fun together at the beach. I wish I could be there, but some things can't be helped. I'll see you soon, though. Have a great rest of the holiday, and try to stay out of trouble. Especially you, Harry.
Harry and Ron both laughed at this. It was just like Hermione to finish a sentence about having a great holiday with "stay out of trouble."
Think about me while you're lying on the beach staring at the ocean, and I'll think about you while I'm lying on a hotel bed staring at reruns on the telly. Actually, the trip to Ireland might be an excellent opportunity to brush up on some of the fifth year studies. I could read ahead a bit.
"A bit?" Ron laughed. "She'll have the whole lot of our books completely finished and be working on the sixth year before we even start fall term!"
Anyway, I should go. Viktor gets out of Quidditch training in a few minutes, and I'm supposed to meet him for tea. Give my best wishes to the twins, Ginny, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Percy, Bill, or Charlie if you happen to see them. Have a great time! Bye!
Love from,
Hermione
Harry couldn't help noticing that Ron blushed a bit as he read the "love from" part, despite the fact that she had signed every letter she had ever sent them since the age of eleven like that. Ron stared at the letter for a moment more and then looked up at Harry.
"Just like that! She completely blows us off for that stupid Bulgarian bozo!"
Fred laughed out loud. "A bit jealous of Viktor Krum, bro?"
Harry had forgotten that they were still in the room with Fred, George, and Ginny. They were all smiling snidely at Ron who was now blushing an even deeper shade of crimson.
Ron looked down, embarrassed. "No, I'm not jealous. I'm just mad that she would choose to visit him, a boy she's known only for a few months, over us, her best friends for four years." He didn't look angry, though. In fact, he looked rather hurt.
"Well, she didn't know her parents were going to drag her off to Ireland," pointed out Harry. "She really couldn't help it."
Ron shrugged. "Oh, who cares anyway? It's just Hermione."
Harry didn't ask why all of a sudden she had turned into "just Hermione," and, surprisingly enough, the twins chose to ignore the sudden change as well. They were too excited to show off their inventions.
"Can we please get back to what we came up here to do?" George asked rather impatiently.
"Oh! Yeah, sorry." Harry sat up and stared at them as they pulled out what they had obviously prepared as a display tray.
"These are just samples, of course," said Fred as he held the tray closer so that Harry could inspect it. "Just something to give a customers and idea of what they're buying. We're not going to waste any of the actual products on a demonstration."
"What's that?" Harry asked as he pointed to what appeared to be a piece of chocolate wrapped in pink and blue foil.
Fred laughed. "That, my dear boy, is a Gender Jostling Jelly Bean. If a man eats one, he automatically grows long hair and fingernails and no matter what he's wearing, he then wears a frilly pink lace dress. Not too much unlike Ron's old dress robes," he said, grinning at Ron.
Ron wasn't amused. "I got rid of the lace," he said irritably.
George rumpled Ron's hair in a big brother type fashion, despite the fact that Ron now stood at least four inches over the twins. "Ah, he's only kidding ya."
Harry was intrigued by the Gender Jostling Jelly Beans. "That reminds me of the day in third year when we studied Boggarts, and Neville's was Snape in a dress and huge falcon-topped hat."
Ron laughed loudly at the memory. Severus Snape was Ron, Hermione, and Harry's absolute least favorite professor at Hogwarts. He was the potions master, and it seemed as though he were put on Earth to insult Harry Potter and anyone who chose to associate with him. Seeing him in a dress and that hat, despite the fact that it hadn't really been him at all, was still enough to make them both laugh very heartily.
"I'd give anything to see that again!" exclaimed Ron as he held up the display candy. "I wonder how much we would have to pay someone to slip him one of these."
"You wouldn't have to pay anyone to slip it to him. Well, besides us, of course. You're not getting free candy just because you're family, mind you. But anyway," George continued. "All you'd have to do is tell Colin Creevey that his hero Harry Potter wanted him to do it, and he'd risk a year's worth of detention just to impress good ole' Harry."
He was right, of course. Colin Creevey was going to be a fourth year student, and he admired Harry more than any person on the planet. He followed him around, endlessly, trying to get him to pay some attention to him. For the most part, Harry always tried to be cordial, but sometimes Colin and his little brother Dennis, who would be a second year, were just downright annoying.
"You know, Harry, he might be onto something." Ginny had spoken for the first time in a long while. "Colin would do anything if he thought it would make you happy."
Ron had to fight the urge to say that Ginny, too, would do anything to make him happy. When Ginny and Colin had first enrolled at Hogwarts, it seemed as though a Harry Potter fan club was sure to immerge along with them. "Yeah, wouldn't it be something?" Ron's eyes glittered at the mere thought. "Getting Colin to slip Snape one and watching him turn into a woman right as he calls attendance..."
Harry laughed. It would be rather funny. Okay, it would be very funny. That alone would be well-worth all the trouble he was sure Snape was going to cause for him this year. It was definitely a possibility he was going to keep in mind for the coming term.
Fred and George showed them a few more inventions and then declared that they had seen enough for one day. "Can't spoil the surprise of having one popped on you, can we?" Fred asked as he winked at Harry.
Harry just shook his head and rolled his eyes. There was no doubt in his mind that he was not going to escape staying with the Weasleys without being turned into a chicken or having his head inflated like a balloon or something to the effect. He would just have to be extremely cautious and make sure he accepted nothing at all from either of the twins. Or from Ginny, for that matter.
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Later that afternoon, Harry and Ron were in Ron's room looking through the pages of Quidditch Center, the monthly magazine devoted to their favorite sport. All the players in all the pictures were zooming around their goals and concentrating fiercely as the sped in and out of view on their broomsticks.
"Wonder what's going to happen with the house team this year," Ron pondered as he read an article on the team that had taken last year's World Quidditch Cup title- Ireland.
"What do you mean?" Harry, too, was reading the article.
"Well, you know. Wood's gone now. And Angelina, too. Who's going to be captain? And they'll need a keeper and another chaser."
Harry hadn't even though of any of that. Sure, it had dawned on him the year before that they were now missing a captain and a keeper, but no Quidditch had even been played last year due to the Triwizard Tournament of Champions. And he hadn't even thought about Angelina graduating. "You know, Ron, I don't know. I reckon Fred or George'll get captain. I don't know what we're going to do about taking Wood and Angelina's places, though."
Ron looked up and then said, "You think maybe I've got a shot?"
Harry was surprised. He knew that Ron loved to watch Quidditch, but he'd never really talked about wanting to play it before. "Sure, I guess. What did you want to play?"
"Well, whenever I scrimmage around with Fred and George I always play keeper. They said I was getting pretty good, actually." He sounded as though he didn't want to come off as too sure of himself. "I guess I'll talk to them about it. If one of them gets captain, you know?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Worth a shot anyway."
They turned the page in the magazine and both gasped. Right there, in front of their very own eyes, was Viktor Krum, seeker for the Bulgarian Quidditch national team, with his arm around Hermione Granger's waist. They were both smiling broadly; Hermione seemed to be showing her newly shrunk teeth off on purpose.
Viktor and Hermione had met the previous year at Hogwarts when Viktor had come to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. He was a few years older than them, having just graduated from his own school, but he still seemed to be extremely smitten with Hermione. He had even asked her to visit him over the summer, which is what had caused Ron's uproar before.
But the Hermione in the picture wasn't the same Hermione that Harry and Ron knew. No, this Hermione was different. Her wild, bushy brown hair was now very straight and combed down to where it fell well below her shoulders, and she was dressed differently. Instead of the usual t-shirt and jeans she wore when not in her Hogwarts robes, Hermione was now dressed in a tight red tank top and a knee length denim skirt with a slit halfway up the front. Her face, too, looked different. She was wearing what appeared to be- yes, it was- make-up. Never before had Hermione ever looked anywhere close to this. Well, unless the Yule Ball from the previous year was counted; she had attended that, too, with Viktor.
Ron and Harry sat staring at the photo speechless for a long moment with their mouths open, and then finally they looked up at each other.
"It can't be..." Ron bent down to examine the photo. "They've made a mistake and printed her name over the picture of some other girl." He read the caption aloud. "Worldwide Quidditch sensation, Viktor Krum of Bulgaria, and what is assumed to be his new girlfriend, Hermione Granger of Britain, smile as they are caught in a local park. Krum has recently signed a seven year contract with the Bulgarian national team to play seeker for a reported fifty thousand galleons a match."
He nearly choked on his own words.
"Fifty thousand galleons a match?!" He looked at Harry with huge eyes. "Holy..." His voice trailed off as he stared down at the photo one more time. It was, in fact, Hermione, and she definitely looked quite at ease being in the arms of what was now a very rich Bulgarian Quidditch player.
Harry was too shocked for words. He just stared down at the magazine, his mouth still open.
Suddenly, Ron's face turned bright red with anger. "So, that's why she's avoiding us! Trying to cozy up to old Krum! Now, that he's getting more money playing one match than my whole family gets in twenty years!" He threw the magazine across the room and glared at it. "She's a real hypocrite, that one is! Going on and on last year about how those girls only liked Krum because he was famous. Getting onto us about going after girls who were nothing but pretty! And now look what she's gone and done! Went and got her a nice little rich boyfriend who isn't even handsome! I look better than that old git does!" Ron was absolutely fuming with anger.
"Ron, calm down." Harry got to his feet and went to retrieve the magazine that Ron had hurled clear across the room. "We don't even know that Viktor Krum is Hermione's... well, boyfriend." It just seemed odd to be using Hermione in the same sentence as the word boyfriend.
"Oh, we don't, eh?" Ron threw a pointer finger down at the picture. "They look pretty close to me!" Harry looked down and saw that now Krum was twirling a piece of Hermione's now incredibly straight hair through his fingers.
Shutting the magazine altogether, Harry just sat down on the bed and thought for a moment. "Ron, I think Hermione would tell us if she and Krum were... well, you know, going out."
"Oh, would she?" Ron narrowed his eyes angrily at the now closed magazine. "She looked pretty different enough on the outside! Maybe she's changed on the inside, too!" Ron couldn't keep himself from letting his voice rise with each sentence. "Maybe she's decided she doesn't need us anymore. That's why she's not coming to visit, and that's why she didn't bother to tell us that she and that dungball had gone and made it official! Why would she need us anyway? She's got a world-famous, extremely rich boyfriend to look after her now!" Ron spewed the word boyfriend in the same fashion that Uncle Vernon spewed Harry's name whenever he spoke of him.
Harry hated to admit it, but Ron might actually have been right. Of course, Ron was being rather over-dramatic about the whole thing. Yes, it was rather odd to imagine Hermione having a boyfriend, but Ron just seemed downright furious about the notion. "Ron, I think we should just write to Hermione and ask her."
Ron looked at him as though he were crazy. "What?! And have her think that we actually care whether or not she's hooking up with some Bulgarian vulture? I don't think so!" Ron crossed his arms over his chest and stayed silent for a moment. "Because I don't know about you, Harry, but I don't care! Whatever she does, that's her business. She obviously doesn't want us to be a part of her business anymore!"
At that moment, Ginny poked her head into the room. "What in blazes name is all the hollering in here about?" she asked with a bewildered look on her face.
Harry silently flipped to the page with Hermione and Krum and handed it to Ginny. At first Ginny seemed to be viewing it as any normal picture, but then she caught on. "HERMIONE?!" She looked up shocked at her brother and Harry.
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Different from when we saw her last, eh?"
Ginny nodded rapidly. "Yeah, but for the definite better! And... oh, wow!!" she said to the picture. "Went and got her a pro-Quidditch player for real!"
Ron looked up at his sister as though he were trying to debate what type of death she should suffer. He was silent for a long moment as he just looked at her. And then without warning, he shouted at her in a voice Harry didn't know Ron was capable of. "GET OUT OF MY BLOODY ROOM, YOU STUPID BRAT!!!!"
Harry looked away and let out a low whistle. Things were about to get ugly.
Ginny just stared at him for a second before she started using language that Harry had never in a million years ever expected to hear from sweet, innocent, little Ginny Weasley. The scene was complete with Ron bellowing back at her with words just as foul, and finally Ginny threw in a couple of hand gestures and stalked out of Ron's bedroom. Ron looked as though he were about to go after her and beat her into a bloody pulp, but he didn't. He just glared after her.
"That idiot doesn't know what she's talking about," he said in what was by far the quietest voice he had used in the last several minutes.
Harry was completely shocked. "Just think if your Mum had walked in in the middle of all that..."
Ron just shook his head, obviously not too worried about his mother. "Ginny's just so stupid these days!"
"What's with her, anyway?" Harry had been meaning to ask if he was the only one noticing the changes in her.
Ron shrugged his shoulders as he ducked his head. "I don't know. Maybe Hermione found a personality changing spell in the fifth year book and brewed one up for Ginny and herself."
Harry laughed, but if he hadn't known that Ron was joking, he would have thought that the spell was the only possible answer. He didn't see how it was possible for two girls to change so much in what was barely over a month.
"Well, look at it this way, Ron. Hermione can't have changed too much, can she? That letter sounded exactly like the same Hermione we left back in June."
Ron nodded. Harry was right. If Hermione had completely changed, she wouldn't be reading ahead or telling them to be careful and stay out of trouble. "I guess." He stood up and headed for the door, obviously done with the topic. "Let's go see if Mum's got dinner, yet."
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PLEASE REPLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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After dinner, Fred and George had insisted on showing Harry some of their new inventions. They led Ron and Harry and Ginny into their room which was remarkably cleaner than the way their dormitory looked at Hogwarts. The Weasley twins were known for being huge mess-makers, so Harry wasn't sure what exactly he was looking at as he stepped into the small room they shared and glanced around at the neatly made beds and the freshly ironed clothes hanging in the closet.
"Wow," said Harry, impressed. "Why's everything so clean in here?"
George laughed. "Well, if we keep the room spotless, Mum never comes in to muddle around and try and fix things. Keeping things tidy decreases our chances of having our new inventions discovered by nearly eighty-six percent."
Harry didn't even bother asking how they had come up with such an exact percentage. He simply walked across the room and sat down on Fred's bed. Ginny sat across from him on George's bed, and Ron stayed standing by the doorway to keep an ear peeled for signs of either of the adult Weasleys.
Fred and George looked at each other and then George reached down and pulled up a loose floorboard, not unlike the one in Harry's room on Privet Drive. Harry craned his neck to see what was in it, but Fred stepped in front of him to block him.
"Uh-uh-uh, Potter," he said smiling. "No peeking. There's still many works in progress down there. You only see what we show you."
Harry nodded. Fair enough. "So, I saw the Weasley's Own Special Sports Gel. Pretty good," he said approvingly.
Fred continued to smile. "Well, we weren't sure it'd work exactly. There's no one here to try it on, you know, because of the Weasley immunity. Actually, we were thinking of turning your foot into a football when you showed up, but Ron threatened he tell Mum if we did."
Harry smiled at Ron who was grinning at him from the doorway. "Thanks, Ron."
Ron just shrugged. "No problem."
"Anyway," continued George, "Ginny was actually the one to come up with the idea to test it on Dudley. She must have heard us tell the tale of the Ton Tongue Toffee a million times." He smiled at his little sister. "So, she thought it up all on her own. Reckon she's gonna be alright, this one."
Ginny couldn't seem to stop smiling at all that day. Usually when Harry was around, she was an absolute mess. She had a habit of breaking things out of nervousness when she was around him, but the day had passed without so much as a broken tea cup. In fact, she was being rather peculiar. Different somehow- bold and witty.
Before anyone could speak another word, though, a loud pecking was heard at the window. All four sets of eyes followed the sound and noticed a tiny brown owl pecking away furiously at the glass. Ron rolled his eyes as he crossed the window and let her in, muttering, "Stupid Pig," the whole way.
Pigwidgeon, or Pig as Ron loathingly called it, was a tiny, overly-excited owl which Ron had gotten the year before. The moment the window was open, Pig flew in hurriedly and began circling the room in a horrid fit of attention-needing. It was George who reached up and untied the letter which it was holding. He glanced at it and threw it at Harry.
Harry looked down at his lap at the letter and at once recognized the handwriting of Hermione Granger, his and Ron's other best friend from Hogwarts. "It's from Hermione," he said.
Ron immediately spun around and seated himself beside Harry. He grabbed the letter and said, "Here. Let me read it."
Harry raised an eyebrow at him, but nonetheless sat quietly while Ron read the letter aloud.
Dear Ron and Harry,
I hope this reaches you both together, so that I don't have to write two separate letters. Things are good with me. How about with the two of you? I'm in Bulgaria at the moment, visiting Viktor. I'm having a lovely time, and I hope that the two of you are having brilliant summer holidays as well.
Harry noticed Ron's voice take a disgusted sort of tone when he read the part about Bulgaria and Viktor. Looking up at Harry, he rolled his eyes. "Lovely time? Yeah, I'm sure she is," he said sarcastically. "Following that nutter around with huge puppy dog eyes going, 'Oh, Viky! How simply lovely!' Please!" Ron had taken to imitating Hermione's voice, however poorly, on the last part. Rolling his eyes one more time, he returned them to the letter.
I'm excited about the new start of term. I've already started reading our Fifth Year Book of Spells. It looks as though there will be some terribly difficult ones this year. Should be great fun!
Ron snorted through laughter. "That girl has got serious mental problems! She's reading her school books already, and we're not even half-way through holiday yet! And great fun?! Harry, how did we ever manage to make Hermione Granger as a friend?"
It was true. Hermione was nothing at all like Harry and Ron. Both Ron and Harry were just as content dozing in class as they were listening. Hermione, however, wouldn't miss a class if you offered to pay her fifty galleons. She was never seen without a huge load of books, and she spent as much time in the library as most of the students spent in their own dormitories. But somehow, the three of them had wound up as best friends. Harry, himself, didn't understand it half the time, but the fact was that having the girl who was top of every class as your best friend came in quite handy sometimes.
Ron continued the letter.
Anyway, I hope that this letter finds you alright. I sent it back with Pigwidgeon after Ron sent me the note to let me know that Harry was coming to stay with him. We all know how that owl is, though. Ron, I don't mean to speak ill of your owl, but it is quite dumb, isn't it?
Ron let out a small gasp. He appeared to have taken great offense to this. "What's she calling dumb? She's the one with that idiotic cat, isn't she?" Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, was anything but idiotic, but Harry chose not to comment. He urged Ron to finish the letter.
The main reason I'm writing, though, is to inform you both that I won't be seeing you until September 1st on the Hogwarts Express. Once I leave Bulgaria, Mum and Dad want me to go to Ireland with them for the rest of the holiday. There's a dentist convention there, and Mum is quite insistent that I go with them. We won't be done there until the end of August, and that will just barely leave me enough time to get to train.
Ron couldn't hide the look of disappointment that covered his face as he read that. "She was supposed to come stay with us a few weeks before school started." He wrinkled his nose angrily. "But she wasn't too busy to run off to Bulgaria, now was she?"
Harry chose not to comment.
I really do hope that you two have fun together at the beach. I wish I could be there, but some things can't be helped. I'll see you soon, though. Have a great rest of the holiday, and try to stay out of trouble. Especially you, Harry.
Harry and Ron both laughed at this. It was just like Hermione to finish a sentence about having a great holiday with "stay out of trouble."
Think about me while you're lying on the beach staring at the ocean, and I'll think about you while I'm lying on a hotel bed staring at reruns on the telly. Actually, the trip to Ireland might be an excellent opportunity to brush up on some of the fifth year studies. I could read ahead a bit.
"A bit?" Ron laughed. "She'll have the whole lot of our books completely finished and be working on the sixth year before we even start fall term!"
Anyway, I should go. Viktor gets out of Quidditch training in a few minutes, and I'm supposed to meet him for tea. Give my best wishes to the twins, Ginny, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Percy, Bill, or Charlie if you happen to see them. Have a great time! Bye!
Love from,
Hermione
Harry couldn't help noticing that Ron blushed a bit as he read the "love from" part, despite the fact that she had signed every letter she had ever sent them since the age of eleven like that. Ron stared at the letter for a moment more and then looked up at Harry.
"Just like that! She completely blows us off for that stupid Bulgarian bozo!"
Fred laughed out loud. "A bit jealous of Viktor Krum, bro?"
Harry had forgotten that they were still in the room with Fred, George, and Ginny. They were all smiling snidely at Ron who was now blushing an even deeper shade of crimson.
Ron looked down, embarrassed. "No, I'm not jealous. I'm just mad that she would choose to visit him, a boy she's known only for a few months, over us, her best friends for four years." He didn't look angry, though. In fact, he looked rather hurt.
"Well, she didn't know her parents were going to drag her off to Ireland," pointed out Harry. "She really couldn't help it."
Ron shrugged. "Oh, who cares anyway? It's just Hermione."
Harry didn't ask why all of a sudden she had turned into "just Hermione," and, surprisingly enough, the twins chose to ignore the sudden change as well. They were too excited to show off their inventions.
"Can we please get back to what we came up here to do?" George asked rather impatiently.
"Oh! Yeah, sorry." Harry sat up and stared at them as they pulled out what they had obviously prepared as a display tray.
"These are just samples, of course," said Fred as he held the tray closer so that Harry could inspect it. "Just something to give a customers and idea of what they're buying. We're not going to waste any of the actual products on a demonstration."
"What's that?" Harry asked as he pointed to what appeared to be a piece of chocolate wrapped in pink and blue foil.
Fred laughed. "That, my dear boy, is a Gender Jostling Jelly Bean. If a man eats one, he automatically grows long hair and fingernails and no matter what he's wearing, he then wears a frilly pink lace dress. Not too much unlike Ron's old dress robes," he said, grinning at Ron.
Ron wasn't amused. "I got rid of the lace," he said irritably.
George rumpled Ron's hair in a big brother type fashion, despite the fact that Ron now stood at least four inches over the twins. "Ah, he's only kidding ya."
Harry was intrigued by the Gender Jostling Jelly Beans. "That reminds me of the day in third year when we studied Boggarts, and Neville's was Snape in a dress and huge falcon-topped hat."
Ron laughed loudly at the memory. Severus Snape was Ron, Hermione, and Harry's absolute least favorite professor at Hogwarts. He was the potions master, and it seemed as though he were put on Earth to insult Harry Potter and anyone who chose to associate with him. Seeing him in a dress and that hat, despite the fact that it hadn't really been him at all, was still enough to make them both laugh very heartily.
"I'd give anything to see that again!" exclaimed Ron as he held up the display candy. "I wonder how much we would have to pay someone to slip him one of these."
"You wouldn't have to pay anyone to slip it to him. Well, besides us, of course. You're not getting free candy just because you're family, mind you. But anyway," George continued. "All you'd have to do is tell Colin Creevey that his hero Harry Potter wanted him to do it, and he'd risk a year's worth of detention just to impress good ole' Harry."
He was right, of course. Colin Creevey was going to be a fourth year student, and he admired Harry more than any person on the planet. He followed him around, endlessly, trying to get him to pay some attention to him. For the most part, Harry always tried to be cordial, but sometimes Colin and his little brother Dennis, who would be a second year, were just downright annoying.
"You know, Harry, he might be onto something." Ginny had spoken for the first time in a long while. "Colin would do anything if he thought it would make you happy."
Ron had to fight the urge to say that Ginny, too, would do anything to make him happy. When Ginny and Colin had first enrolled at Hogwarts, it seemed as though a Harry Potter fan club was sure to immerge along with them. "Yeah, wouldn't it be something?" Ron's eyes glittered at the mere thought. "Getting Colin to slip Snape one and watching him turn into a woman right as he calls attendance..."
Harry laughed. It would be rather funny. Okay, it would be very funny. That alone would be well-worth all the trouble he was sure Snape was going to cause for him this year. It was definitely a possibility he was going to keep in mind for the coming term.
Fred and George showed them a few more inventions and then declared that they had seen enough for one day. "Can't spoil the surprise of having one popped on you, can we?" Fred asked as he winked at Harry.
Harry just shook his head and rolled his eyes. There was no doubt in his mind that he was not going to escape staying with the Weasleys without being turned into a chicken or having his head inflated like a balloon or something to the effect. He would just have to be extremely cautious and make sure he accepted nothing at all from either of the twins. Or from Ginny, for that matter.
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Later that afternoon, Harry and Ron were in Ron's room looking through the pages of Quidditch Center, the monthly magazine devoted to their favorite sport. All the players in all the pictures were zooming around their goals and concentrating fiercely as the sped in and out of view on their broomsticks.
"Wonder what's going to happen with the house team this year," Ron pondered as he read an article on the team that had taken last year's World Quidditch Cup title- Ireland.
"What do you mean?" Harry, too, was reading the article.
"Well, you know. Wood's gone now. And Angelina, too. Who's going to be captain? And they'll need a keeper and another chaser."
Harry hadn't even though of any of that. Sure, it had dawned on him the year before that they were now missing a captain and a keeper, but no Quidditch had even been played last year due to the Triwizard Tournament of Champions. And he hadn't even thought about Angelina graduating. "You know, Ron, I don't know. I reckon Fred or George'll get captain. I don't know what we're going to do about taking Wood and Angelina's places, though."
Ron looked up and then said, "You think maybe I've got a shot?"
Harry was surprised. He knew that Ron loved to watch Quidditch, but he'd never really talked about wanting to play it before. "Sure, I guess. What did you want to play?"
"Well, whenever I scrimmage around with Fred and George I always play keeper. They said I was getting pretty good, actually." He sounded as though he didn't want to come off as too sure of himself. "I guess I'll talk to them about it. If one of them gets captain, you know?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Worth a shot anyway."
They turned the page in the magazine and both gasped. Right there, in front of their very own eyes, was Viktor Krum, seeker for the Bulgarian Quidditch national team, with his arm around Hermione Granger's waist. They were both smiling broadly; Hermione seemed to be showing her newly shrunk teeth off on purpose.
Viktor and Hermione had met the previous year at Hogwarts when Viktor had come to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. He was a few years older than them, having just graduated from his own school, but he still seemed to be extremely smitten with Hermione. He had even asked her to visit him over the summer, which is what had caused Ron's uproar before.
But the Hermione in the picture wasn't the same Hermione that Harry and Ron knew. No, this Hermione was different. Her wild, bushy brown hair was now very straight and combed down to where it fell well below her shoulders, and she was dressed differently. Instead of the usual t-shirt and jeans she wore when not in her Hogwarts robes, Hermione was now dressed in a tight red tank top and a knee length denim skirt with a slit halfway up the front. Her face, too, looked different. She was wearing what appeared to be- yes, it was- make-up. Never before had Hermione ever looked anywhere close to this. Well, unless the Yule Ball from the previous year was counted; she had attended that, too, with Viktor.
Ron and Harry sat staring at the photo speechless for a long moment with their mouths open, and then finally they looked up at each other.
"It can't be..." Ron bent down to examine the photo. "They've made a mistake and printed her name over the picture of some other girl." He read the caption aloud. "Worldwide Quidditch sensation, Viktor Krum of Bulgaria, and what is assumed to be his new girlfriend, Hermione Granger of Britain, smile as they are caught in a local park. Krum has recently signed a seven year contract with the Bulgarian national team to play seeker for a reported fifty thousand galleons a match."
He nearly choked on his own words.
"Fifty thousand galleons a match?!" He looked at Harry with huge eyes. "Holy..." His voice trailed off as he stared down at the photo one more time. It was, in fact, Hermione, and she definitely looked quite at ease being in the arms of what was now a very rich Bulgarian Quidditch player.
Harry was too shocked for words. He just stared down at the magazine, his mouth still open.
Suddenly, Ron's face turned bright red with anger. "So, that's why she's avoiding us! Trying to cozy up to old Krum! Now, that he's getting more money playing one match than my whole family gets in twenty years!" He threw the magazine across the room and glared at it. "She's a real hypocrite, that one is! Going on and on last year about how those girls only liked Krum because he was famous. Getting onto us about going after girls who were nothing but pretty! And now look what she's gone and done! Went and got her a nice little rich boyfriend who isn't even handsome! I look better than that old git does!" Ron was absolutely fuming with anger.
"Ron, calm down." Harry got to his feet and went to retrieve the magazine that Ron had hurled clear across the room. "We don't even know that Viktor Krum is Hermione's... well, boyfriend." It just seemed odd to be using Hermione in the same sentence as the word boyfriend.
"Oh, we don't, eh?" Ron threw a pointer finger down at the picture. "They look pretty close to me!" Harry looked down and saw that now Krum was twirling a piece of Hermione's now incredibly straight hair through his fingers.
Shutting the magazine altogether, Harry just sat down on the bed and thought for a moment. "Ron, I think Hermione would tell us if she and Krum were... well, you know, going out."
"Oh, would she?" Ron narrowed his eyes angrily at the now closed magazine. "She looked pretty different enough on the outside! Maybe she's changed on the inside, too!" Ron couldn't keep himself from letting his voice rise with each sentence. "Maybe she's decided she doesn't need us anymore. That's why she's not coming to visit, and that's why she didn't bother to tell us that she and that dungball had gone and made it official! Why would she need us anyway? She's got a world-famous, extremely rich boyfriend to look after her now!" Ron spewed the word boyfriend in the same fashion that Uncle Vernon spewed Harry's name whenever he spoke of him.
Harry hated to admit it, but Ron might actually have been right. Of course, Ron was being rather over-dramatic about the whole thing. Yes, it was rather odd to imagine Hermione having a boyfriend, but Ron just seemed downright furious about the notion. "Ron, I think we should just write to Hermione and ask her."
Ron looked at him as though he were crazy. "What?! And have her think that we actually care whether or not she's hooking up with some Bulgarian vulture? I don't think so!" Ron crossed his arms over his chest and stayed silent for a moment. "Because I don't know about you, Harry, but I don't care! Whatever she does, that's her business. She obviously doesn't want us to be a part of her business anymore!"
At that moment, Ginny poked her head into the room. "What in blazes name is all the hollering in here about?" she asked with a bewildered look on her face.
Harry silently flipped to the page with Hermione and Krum and handed it to Ginny. At first Ginny seemed to be viewing it as any normal picture, but then she caught on. "HERMIONE?!" She looked up shocked at her brother and Harry.
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Different from when we saw her last, eh?"
Ginny nodded rapidly. "Yeah, but for the definite better! And... oh, wow!!" she said to the picture. "Went and got her a pro-Quidditch player for real!"
Ron looked up at his sister as though he were trying to debate what type of death she should suffer. He was silent for a long moment as he just looked at her. And then without warning, he shouted at her in a voice Harry didn't know Ron was capable of. "GET OUT OF MY BLOODY ROOM, YOU STUPID BRAT!!!!"
Harry looked away and let out a low whistle. Things were about to get ugly.
Ginny just stared at him for a second before she started using language that Harry had never in a million years ever expected to hear from sweet, innocent, little Ginny Weasley. The scene was complete with Ron bellowing back at her with words just as foul, and finally Ginny threw in a couple of hand gestures and stalked out of Ron's bedroom. Ron looked as though he were about to go after her and beat her into a bloody pulp, but he didn't. He just glared after her.
"That idiot doesn't know what she's talking about," he said in what was by far the quietest voice he had used in the last several minutes.
Harry was completely shocked. "Just think if your Mum had walked in in the middle of all that..."
Ron just shook his head, obviously not too worried about his mother. "Ginny's just so stupid these days!"
"What's with her, anyway?" Harry had been meaning to ask if he was the only one noticing the changes in her.
Ron shrugged his shoulders as he ducked his head. "I don't know. Maybe Hermione found a personality changing spell in the fifth year book and brewed one up for Ginny and herself."
Harry laughed, but if he hadn't known that Ron was joking, he would have thought that the spell was the only possible answer. He didn't see how it was possible for two girls to change so much in what was barely over a month.
"Well, look at it this way, Ron. Hermione can't have changed too much, can she? That letter sounded exactly like the same Hermione we left back in June."
Ron nodded. Harry was right. If Hermione had completely changed, she wouldn't be reading ahead or telling them to be careful and stay out of trouble. "I guess." He stood up and headed for the door, obviously done with the topic. "Let's go see if Mum's got dinner, yet."
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