Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: J-Kid, I really don't know why I started out with the birthday thing, it just worked and gave me a good reason to make Hermione go over to Harry's. Sooo.. umm.... R/R!
Saturday had finally arrived and Harry was up and ready earlier than usual. Dudley had talked Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon into letting Hermione and Ron come over just as he had promised and at about ten til' noon the door bell rang. Harry ran to answer the door, but just as he reached it Dudley pushed him out of the way and opened the door. Dudley was wearing his best suit and greeted the person behind the door with a big grin. It was Ron. Dudley's grin faded into a glare and he stomped away without a word. Harry went to the door, "Hey Ron!"
"Hey Harry." Ron said suddenly frowning. "I know I'm not pretty or anything, but how rude!" Harry laughed and asked, "So, your folks drive you here?"
"Yeah," Ron answered, "My dad and Ginny did, dad borrowed a car from work, but he thought it best just to drop me off, he figured it would cause less hysterics that way." Harry laughed again and waved hello to Ginny before showing Ron around the house. At precisely 12:00 the doorbell rang again and Harry looked at his watch.
"Right on time!" Harry said.
"That's our Hermione!" Ron added.
Ron followed Harry down the steps to get the door, but of course, Dudley got there first. So, Harry and Ron decided to take front row seats on the stairs and watch. Dudley opened the door once again with a big grin on his face. As soon as Hermione saw him she gave a nervous smile and said "Hello again Dudley," with nicest voice she could manage. Dudley just stood there grinning like a fool. Harry and Ron chuckled doing their best to stifle their laughter.
"Um, how are you doing today?" Hermione seemed to be doing her best to get a reaction out of Dudley without being rude, but Dudley only grinned and stared.
"Is Harry home?" she asked hopefully as she began to look extremely nervous and her smile began to fade. Harry and Ron were laughing so hard they could hardly hold it in.
"You -er look nice...Are you okay?" she said taping him on the shoulder, seeming quite desperate at that point. Dudley turned a bright shade of red and nearly collapsed, causing Harry and Ron to lose total control and burst out laughing. Hermione, hearing the laughs, looked over Dudley's shoulder and glared at Ron and Harry.
"Don't just sit there laughing!" Hermione said rather agitated, "How about a little help here?" Still laughing Ron and Harry walked to the door and Harry pushed Dudley out of her way while whispering so only he could hear him, "Don't forget our deal, not a word until dinner."
Harry then led Ron and Hermione up to his room and shut the door, Ron and Harry were still laughing, while Hermione only glared. "What's the matter with you Cousin Harry? He's acting really weird, and why is he dressed like that?" Ron laughed as he said; "Didn't Harry tell you that Dudley fancies you? I mean that's the only reason we got to-" Ron was cut off however by Harry stepping hard on his foot and glaring at him. Hermione looked rather confused.
"So Hermione, hear from Krum lately?" Ron asked in the most casual voice he could muster.
"Yes," Hermione said trying to hold back a blush.
"Oh," said Ron staring at the ground.
"I didn't go to Bulgaria if you must know Ron." Said Hermione smiling at him.
"Aha, so he turned you down, uninvited you, broke up with you!" Ron said in a rather conceded tone.
Hermione turned beat red with anger, "No, actually the offer still stands but my parents wouldn't let me go!"
"Oh, so you admit you would have gone with him if your parents let you?!" Ron yelled, his face now the color of his hair.
"I never said that and you know it Ron!" Both Ron and Hermione were fuming with anger. Harry looked from one to the other. "Is it a rule that y'all have to get in at least one fight every time you come in contact?" Both of them looked at the ground looking equally embarrassed.
The rest of the night however went much smoother. Eventually dinnertime came around and the three went down to the table, all quite nervous at how the Dursley's would act. Harry sat down and Hermione sat on one side of him, Ron went to sit on the other side of Hermione but Dudley pushed him out of the way and sat there first. Ron looked as if he wanted to punch Dudley in the back of the head until Hermione glanced back at him with a smile and he suddenly calmed down and sat on the other side of Harry.
Despite Dudley now being able to talk to Hermione as part of his and Harry's deal, he kept his mouth shut and only grinned occasionally while casually scooting his chair closer to Hermione. Hermione however was getting the interrogation of a lifetime from Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, but she handled it rather well under the circumstances. Well, that is until Uncle Vernon reached the question pertaining to school.
"What school do you go to?" was of course one of Uncle Vernon's first questions.
"I attend..." she searched for a word, any word would do, as long as it had nothing to do with magic of course. "...The Krum Academy for girls" she said before she had time to think and stared down at her plate doing her best to avoid Ron's cold stare.
"Ah, I've never heard of that school before, is it nearby?" Uncle Vernon inquired very interested.
"Oh, it's a very private school and it's pretty far away." Hermione answered still looking at her plate, openly angry with herself for using Krum's name in front of Ron, getting in another fight was the last thing she wanted to do.
Ron then mumbled something that sounded like; "Yeah, in Bulgaria," but no else seemed to pay him any attention. Hermione looked up at him with a pleading look on her face, but he just shoveled more food in his mouth and looked away.
It was now Aunt Petunia's turn and she looked intently at Hermione, "You must be very clever, and your quite pretty too, do you have a boyfriend?" Hermione looked nervously at her plate as Dudley was now practically sitting in her lap and blushed a bit at the question. That was quite a personal question for someone she hardly knew to ask her she thought, but she answered none the less, "Thank you ma'am, but no, I don't have a boyfriend." She bravely looked back up at Ron who was concentrating hard on her but turned the moment she looked his way.
"Oh, " Mrs. Dursley said as she grinned widely at Hermione and then at Dudley, "what a coincidence, my precious Dudley hasn't got a girlfriend either." Harry and Ron could barely choke back a laugh as they heard this. "Coincidence" Harry thought, Dudley wouldn't have a girlfriend even if he weren't roughly the size of a baby whale.
The rest of dinner went on in a similar fashion and Harry finally decided to save Hermione and the three of them left the table as Dudley trailed behind.
"The Krum Academy, huh Hermione?" Ron spoke with a hint of anger.
"I'm sorry Ron! It was the first thing that I could think of that the Dursley's most likely wouldn't of heard of." Hermione said not with anger but with remorse.
"Sure Hermione, I see how it is, you just can't stop thinking about him is that it?"
"No Ron! It isn't like that at all!" she said as tears welled up in her eyes.
At that moment Dudley saw Hermione almost start to cry and he turned red with anger as he walked towards Ron. Harry glanced worriedly at the two as Ron began to back away.
"Don't you yell at her." Dudley spoke in a soft but angry voice.
Hermione stared worriedly from Ron to Dudley. Ron held up his fists, "What? You wanna fight?!" he shouted. Dudley only advanced silently and held up his fists. Quickly Hermione grabbed Dudley's arm and turned him around, "Um, do you have a telephone I can use Dudley?" Dudley seemed to forget about Ron and his cheeks turned a bit red, "O-of course," he stammered as he put his arm around Hermione's shoulders with a devilish grin. "Right this way," he added as his cheeks turned there normal color and he began to walk towards the family room with quite a bit more courage than before. Ron shook with anger as Dudley turned his head around and stuck his tongue out at Ron. Harry held the red faced Ron back.
"Wonder what she needs a phone for anyway," Ron said still glaring after the two.
"Probably just wanted to keep Dudley from killing you," Harry said looking at Ron.
"What?" Ron shouted staring at Harry angrily. "That jerk couldn't even lay a finger on me! Not like Hermione would even care if he did."
"Of course she cares Ron!"
At that moment Hermione walked out of the family room followed uncomfortably close by Dudley. "My parents are on their way to pick me up Harry."
"But I thought you and Harry were staying over at my house from now until school started." Ron blurted out.
"Well, I figured that you didn't want me to stay over anymore," Hermione said.
Ron looked down at his feet, of course he wanted her to stay over, but he couldn't apologize now or she might start to suspect that he really liked her. "Good idea," he said still staring at his feet wishing more than anything that he hadn't said that. "Well, Harry, maybe you ought to get your stuff packed, we're going to have to leave as soon as Hermione does or Dudley's gonna have a fit," He said quiet enough so that Dudley couldn't hear, but Hermione still managed to understand.
"Now what on earth is that supposed to mean Ron?" Hermione glared at him with fury in her eyes.
Ron just grinned a dazed sort of grin at her for a second and then quickly snapped out of it. "That's right Hermione," he now spoke loudly. "The only reason Harry invited you here was because it was the only way that he could invite me! Dudley agreed to let me come over only if Harry invited you over too!" Ron smirked.
Hermione's eyes were now completely devoid of fury and now full of rejection as she looked over at Harry. "Hermione, that's not true! Well not really... The only way I could invite anyone over was to invite you over because Dudley sa-" At that moment the door bell rang and Mr. Dursley got the door.
"Hermione, your father is here," Mr. Dursley said as he saw the sharply dressed Mr. Granger in business suit attire. Hermione forced back tears as she backed away from Harry and Ron, turned and walked out to the car with her father, Dudley glared at Ron and Harry both before following Hermione to the door and waving like an idiot as the car pulled away.
Ron's smile immediately faded away and he began to regret ever saying what he had said.
"Ron! You idiot!" Harry shouted as he headed up the stairs to get his stuff. Ron didn't disagree, he just stood there staring at the door. He had been looking forward to spending the last couple of weeks with his best friends, especially Hermione.
Shortly Harry trudged down the stairs dragging his trunk behind him and headed for the family room.
"I think we should be leaving now, come on Ron, you got floo powder?" Harry asked irritated.
"Yeah..." Reluctantly he followed Harry to the family room where Harry was now starting a fire. "Look Harry, I'm sorry I told her that and all!" Harry looked up at him.
"Ron, you should be telling her that, but, it's not like we can do anything about that now, so how about we forget it okay?"
"Alright..." Ron replied. Harry took the floo powder from Ron and threw a pinch in the fire. They both figured that it wouldn't be a big deal if they left by floo powder, as long as many redheaded people didn't come busting through the fire like last year.
"I'm leaving now Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia!" Harry yelled as he was about to step into the flames with his school trunk, but before he got the chance to enter Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia came into the room.
"Bye." Uncle Vernon choked out, obviously afraid that Ron would tell his father if they didn't say good-bye to Harry again this year.
"Ummmm... see you next summer..." Harry said before stepping into the green flames and clearly shouting, "The Burrow!" Shortly followed by Ron.
A/N: J-Kid, I really don't know why I started out with the birthday thing, it just worked and gave me a good reason to make Hermione go over to Harry's. Sooo.. umm.... R/R!
Saturday had finally arrived and Harry was up and ready earlier than usual. Dudley had talked Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon into letting Hermione and Ron come over just as he had promised and at about ten til' noon the door bell rang. Harry ran to answer the door, but just as he reached it Dudley pushed him out of the way and opened the door. Dudley was wearing his best suit and greeted the person behind the door with a big grin. It was Ron. Dudley's grin faded into a glare and he stomped away without a word. Harry went to the door, "Hey Ron!"
"Hey Harry." Ron said suddenly frowning. "I know I'm not pretty or anything, but how rude!" Harry laughed and asked, "So, your folks drive you here?"
"Yeah," Ron answered, "My dad and Ginny did, dad borrowed a car from work, but he thought it best just to drop me off, he figured it would cause less hysterics that way." Harry laughed again and waved hello to Ginny before showing Ron around the house. At precisely 12:00 the doorbell rang again and Harry looked at his watch.
"Right on time!" Harry said.
"That's our Hermione!" Ron added.
Ron followed Harry down the steps to get the door, but of course, Dudley got there first. So, Harry and Ron decided to take front row seats on the stairs and watch. Dudley opened the door once again with a big grin on his face. As soon as Hermione saw him she gave a nervous smile and said "Hello again Dudley," with nicest voice she could manage. Dudley just stood there grinning like a fool. Harry and Ron chuckled doing their best to stifle their laughter.
"Um, how are you doing today?" Hermione seemed to be doing her best to get a reaction out of Dudley without being rude, but Dudley only grinned and stared.
"Is Harry home?" she asked hopefully as she began to look extremely nervous and her smile began to fade. Harry and Ron were laughing so hard they could hardly hold it in.
"You -er look nice...Are you okay?" she said taping him on the shoulder, seeming quite desperate at that point. Dudley turned a bright shade of red and nearly collapsed, causing Harry and Ron to lose total control and burst out laughing. Hermione, hearing the laughs, looked over Dudley's shoulder and glared at Ron and Harry.
"Don't just sit there laughing!" Hermione said rather agitated, "How about a little help here?" Still laughing Ron and Harry walked to the door and Harry pushed Dudley out of her way while whispering so only he could hear him, "Don't forget our deal, not a word until dinner."
Harry then led Ron and Hermione up to his room and shut the door, Ron and Harry were still laughing, while Hermione only glared. "What's the matter with you Cousin Harry? He's acting really weird, and why is he dressed like that?" Ron laughed as he said; "Didn't Harry tell you that Dudley fancies you? I mean that's the only reason we got to-" Ron was cut off however by Harry stepping hard on his foot and glaring at him. Hermione looked rather confused.
"So Hermione, hear from Krum lately?" Ron asked in the most casual voice he could muster.
"Yes," Hermione said trying to hold back a blush.
"Oh," said Ron staring at the ground.
"I didn't go to Bulgaria if you must know Ron." Said Hermione smiling at him.
"Aha, so he turned you down, uninvited you, broke up with you!" Ron said in a rather conceded tone.
Hermione turned beat red with anger, "No, actually the offer still stands but my parents wouldn't let me go!"
"Oh, so you admit you would have gone with him if your parents let you?!" Ron yelled, his face now the color of his hair.
"I never said that and you know it Ron!" Both Ron and Hermione were fuming with anger. Harry looked from one to the other. "Is it a rule that y'all have to get in at least one fight every time you come in contact?" Both of them looked at the ground looking equally embarrassed.
The rest of the night however went much smoother. Eventually dinnertime came around and the three went down to the table, all quite nervous at how the Dursley's would act. Harry sat down and Hermione sat on one side of him, Ron went to sit on the other side of Hermione but Dudley pushed him out of the way and sat there first. Ron looked as if he wanted to punch Dudley in the back of the head until Hermione glanced back at him with a smile and he suddenly calmed down and sat on the other side of Harry.
Despite Dudley now being able to talk to Hermione as part of his and Harry's deal, he kept his mouth shut and only grinned occasionally while casually scooting his chair closer to Hermione. Hermione however was getting the interrogation of a lifetime from Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, but she handled it rather well under the circumstances. Well, that is until Uncle Vernon reached the question pertaining to school.
"What school do you go to?" was of course one of Uncle Vernon's first questions.
"I attend..." she searched for a word, any word would do, as long as it had nothing to do with magic of course. "...The Krum Academy for girls" she said before she had time to think and stared down at her plate doing her best to avoid Ron's cold stare.
"Ah, I've never heard of that school before, is it nearby?" Uncle Vernon inquired very interested.
"Oh, it's a very private school and it's pretty far away." Hermione answered still looking at her plate, openly angry with herself for using Krum's name in front of Ron, getting in another fight was the last thing she wanted to do.
Ron then mumbled something that sounded like; "Yeah, in Bulgaria," but no else seemed to pay him any attention. Hermione looked up at him with a pleading look on her face, but he just shoveled more food in his mouth and looked away.
It was now Aunt Petunia's turn and she looked intently at Hermione, "You must be very clever, and your quite pretty too, do you have a boyfriend?" Hermione looked nervously at her plate as Dudley was now practically sitting in her lap and blushed a bit at the question. That was quite a personal question for someone she hardly knew to ask her she thought, but she answered none the less, "Thank you ma'am, but no, I don't have a boyfriend." She bravely looked back up at Ron who was concentrating hard on her but turned the moment she looked his way.
"Oh, " Mrs. Dursley said as she grinned widely at Hermione and then at Dudley, "what a coincidence, my precious Dudley hasn't got a girlfriend either." Harry and Ron could barely choke back a laugh as they heard this. "Coincidence" Harry thought, Dudley wouldn't have a girlfriend even if he weren't roughly the size of a baby whale.
The rest of dinner went on in a similar fashion and Harry finally decided to save Hermione and the three of them left the table as Dudley trailed behind.
"The Krum Academy, huh Hermione?" Ron spoke with a hint of anger.
"I'm sorry Ron! It was the first thing that I could think of that the Dursley's most likely wouldn't of heard of." Hermione said not with anger but with remorse.
"Sure Hermione, I see how it is, you just can't stop thinking about him is that it?"
"No Ron! It isn't like that at all!" she said as tears welled up in her eyes.
At that moment Dudley saw Hermione almost start to cry and he turned red with anger as he walked towards Ron. Harry glanced worriedly at the two as Ron began to back away.
"Don't you yell at her." Dudley spoke in a soft but angry voice.
Hermione stared worriedly from Ron to Dudley. Ron held up his fists, "What? You wanna fight?!" he shouted. Dudley only advanced silently and held up his fists. Quickly Hermione grabbed Dudley's arm and turned him around, "Um, do you have a telephone I can use Dudley?" Dudley seemed to forget about Ron and his cheeks turned a bit red, "O-of course," he stammered as he put his arm around Hermione's shoulders with a devilish grin. "Right this way," he added as his cheeks turned there normal color and he began to walk towards the family room with quite a bit more courage than before. Ron shook with anger as Dudley turned his head around and stuck his tongue out at Ron. Harry held the red faced Ron back.
"Wonder what she needs a phone for anyway," Ron said still glaring after the two.
"Probably just wanted to keep Dudley from killing you," Harry said looking at Ron.
"What?" Ron shouted staring at Harry angrily. "That jerk couldn't even lay a finger on me! Not like Hermione would even care if he did."
"Of course she cares Ron!"
At that moment Hermione walked out of the family room followed uncomfortably close by Dudley. "My parents are on their way to pick me up Harry."
"But I thought you and Harry were staying over at my house from now until school started." Ron blurted out.
"Well, I figured that you didn't want me to stay over anymore," Hermione said.
Ron looked down at his feet, of course he wanted her to stay over, but he couldn't apologize now or she might start to suspect that he really liked her. "Good idea," he said still staring at his feet wishing more than anything that he hadn't said that. "Well, Harry, maybe you ought to get your stuff packed, we're going to have to leave as soon as Hermione does or Dudley's gonna have a fit," He said quiet enough so that Dudley couldn't hear, but Hermione still managed to understand.
"Now what on earth is that supposed to mean Ron?" Hermione glared at him with fury in her eyes.
Ron just grinned a dazed sort of grin at her for a second and then quickly snapped out of it. "That's right Hermione," he now spoke loudly. "The only reason Harry invited you here was because it was the only way that he could invite me! Dudley agreed to let me come over only if Harry invited you over too!" Ron smirked.
Hermione's eyes were now completely devoid of fury and now full of rejection as she looked over at Harry. "Hermione, that's not true! Well not really... The only way I could invite anyone over was to invite you over because Dudley sa-" At that moment the door bell rang and Mr. Dursley got the door.
"Hermione, your father is here," Mr. Dursley said as he saw the sharply dressed Mr. Granger in business suit attire. Hermione forced back tears as she backed away from Harry and Ron, turned and walked out to the car with her father, Dudley glared at Ron and Harry both before following Hermione to the door and waving like an idiot as the car pulled away.
Ron's smile immediately faded away and he began to regret ever saying what he had said.
"Ron! You idiot!" Harry shouted as he headed up the stairs to get his stuff. Ron didn't disagree, he just stood there staring at the door. He had been looking forward to spending the last couple of weeks with his best friends, especially Hermione.
Shortly Harry trudged down the stairs dragging his trunk behind him and headed for the family room.
"I think we should be leaving now, come on Ron, you got floo powder?" Harry asked irritated.
"Yeah..." Reluctantly he followed Harry to the family room where Harry was now starting a fire. "Look Harry, I'm sorry I told her that and all!" Harry looked up at him.
"Ron, you should be telling her that, but, it's not like we can do anything about that now, so how about we forget it okay?"
"Alright..." Ron replied. Harry took the floo powder from Ron and threw a pinch in the fire. They both figured that it wouldn't be a big deal if they left by floo powder, as long as many redheaded people didn't come busting through the fire like last year.
"I'm leaving now Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia!" Harry yelled as he was about to step into the flames with his school trunk, but before he got the chance to enter Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia came into the room.
"Bye." Uncle Vernon choked out, obviously afraid that Ron would tell his father if they didn't say good-bye to Harry again this year.
"Ummmm... see you next summer..." Harry said before stepping into the green flames and clearly shouting, "The Burrow!" Shortly followed by Ron.
