Xenith
"Life simply is. We must go with it or it destroys us."
~~~Unknown
Chapter Thirty
"The Christmas holidays are fast approaching," Professor McGonagall addressed her fifth years the Monday before the Christmas holiday was to begin. "And with the holiday's come your O.W.L.s." The whole of the class let loose a collective groan.
"Why are we starting so soon?" Seamus moaned, banging his head on his desk.
"Quiet, Finnigan," McGonagall chided. "If you are just now beginning to study you are very much behind." There was a smattering of laughter from the class.
"Hey, Harry," Ron hissed at his bespectacled friend.
"Yeah?" Harry replied, leaning back in his chair to look at Ron around Hermione's back.
"How was last night?"
"Long, you don't have to wait up for me."
"Yeah, well, what are brothers for?" Ron grinned.
"Brothers?"
"Yeah, brothers." Harry smiled softly at his ginger haired fr---brother. "So, are they going to make you take the O.W.L.s?"
"Yes, but I'm glad they are, I don't want to be treated any differently."
"Let's start language and signal training tonight, alright?"
"Bien," (Okay) Harry said in French, the corners of his mouth quirking.
"Vous parlez français?" (You speak French?) Ron replied in the same, eyes widening.
"What? I can only remember, maybe, five words from a course we were given in primary school."
"C'est un début, Harry, c'est un début," (It's a start, Harry, it's a start.)
Harry tipped his head a bit and looked at Ron.
"We've a _lot_ of work to do."
---
"N.E.W.T.s," Professor McGonagall addressed her seventh years. "Are THE most important test that you will take in your Hogwarts career. "You are all of age and should have _some_ idea as to what you would like to do with the rest of your lives. There is a multitude of avenues available for young, intelligent, able bodied wizards and witches such as yourself. Some of you may choose to sign on with Professional Quidditch teams, as apprentices, join the Ministry, or apply to a University somewhere. Much of this depends upon how well you perform on your exams.
"Now, here are---"
"What if we don't plan on doing any of that?" George interrupted.
"Yeah, what if our plans involve, say, starting our own business? Why would we have to take N.E.W.T.s?" Fred elaborated.
"And you two plan on starting your own business?" McGonagall said, folding her arms over her chest. Frankly, she wasn't very surprised.
"I daresay you mean started already. Our _little_ business is well on its way."
"That's quite an accomplishment given that you couldn't even bother yourself to study for last weeks test."
"We don't like to bother ourselves with piddly little things like tests." George expanded.
"We're entrepreneurs." Fred declared.
"Well, your business won't be very successful if you can't do the paperwork to back it up."
"We've got people for that."
"More like person, Fred."
"We've got a person for that." Fred corrected, never breaking stride.
"And how---" McGonagall was cut off as the bell signaling the end of class rang.
"Good-bye Professor!" George called over his shoulder as he dragged Fred out of the door with him. "See you next year!"
"Ahhh," Fred said with a sigh, throwing one arm around his brother's shoulder and the other around Lee Jordan's. "Transfiguration's over till January and she forgot to assign us any homework for the holiday. What a beautiful world."
---
"Okay," Hermione said, touching the tip of her wand to the centre of Harry's forehead. "This is an absorption spell; it'll be like you're a linguist. You'll be able to analyze, internalize, and reformat the language in only a few minuets of learning it. It'll hurt a bit, are you ready?"
"Yes." Harry said softly, closing his eyes.
"Admorous." Hermione said. Harry's brain seized under the pressure of the charm.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head clear and looked back across the coffee table at them.
"Yeah, let's start." He replied.
"Okay, Hermione and are just going to start talking. Pay attention. You're a smart kid, catch on."
"Ex---excuse me?" Harry stammered.
"Trop tard, nous avons déjà commencé," (Too late, we've already begun,) Ron smirked.
"Salut, Ron, comment sont vous cette soirée?" (Hello, Ron, how are you this evening?) Hermione started professionally.
"Parfaitement excellent, beau, comment allez-vous?" (Perfectly fine, beautiful, how are you?). Ron said grinning like a fool.
"Stop it Ron." Hermione blushed.
"Français, beau, français." (French, beautiful, French.)
"Pardon, mon beau," (Pardon, my lovely) It was Ron's turn to blush.
"J'ai alimenté mon chat hier." "I fed my cat yesterday."
"Oh, vous a faits, comment agréable." (Oh, did you, how nice.)
"J'ai aussi déjeuné aujourd'hui. Je pourrais à peine m'aider de sauter vous." (I also had lunch today. I could hardly help myself from jumping you.)
"Hermione!" Ron's ears were flaming.
"How allons-nous we apprendre n'importe teach des autres languages? Je Know seulement le français et l'anglais." (How are we going to teach him any of the other languages? I only know French and English.) Hermione said.
"Je sais, l'allemand, Mermish, russe et Elvish, mais tout les autres, nous allons avoir besoin de quelqu'un d'autre pour l'aider avec ceux-là. Je ne sais(connais) pas qui quoique." (I know, French, German, Russian, Mermish, and Elvish, but all the others, we're going to need someone else to help him with those. I don't know who though.)
"Votre français est _quite_ bon, Ron. Vous say que vous avez juste appris cet été ?" (Your French is _quite_ good, Ron. You say you just learned this summer?)
"Yeah, c'est pourquoi je ne pouvais pas over." (Yeah, that is why I couldn't have you over.)
"I wish I could have, I was so bored." Hermione said, in French, but Harry was astounded to find himself understanding completely. He decided to try his hand at the language.
"Ainsi, quels étaient les devoirs Charms alors?" (So, what was the Charms homework then?)
"Harry! Bon travail!" (Harry! Good job.)
"Jetzt Deutsche. Unsere Charme-Hausaufgaben waren read, Kapitel zwölf bei cooking des Charmes für ein Quiz am Monday zu lesen." (Now German. Our Charms homework today was to read chapter twelve on cooking charms for a quiz on Wednesday.) "Ich weiß know dann alle dennoch. Sie können nicht in Weasley Haushalt leben ohne zu cook, wie man richtig kocht. Mama ist, uns, ein Zauberer sagen lassen, wenn es zur Küche kommt. Ich höre dass Hermione's not besonders gut daran though." (I already know then all though. You can't live in the Weasley household without knowing how to cook properly. mum is, let us say, a magician when it comes to the kitchen. I hear that Hermione's not very good at it though.)
"Wirklich? Ich hätte gedacht, dass sie ein guter Koch sein würde. Sie ist an etwas anderem gut." (Really? I would have thought that she would be a good cook. She is good at everything else.) Harry replied happily, he was catching on quickly.
"Honestly, she's hopeless. I won't know what to with her in our kitchen. She's going to be making messes all the time. And guess who is going to have to clean them up? Me! That is who!" Ron articulated in rough Russian, he didn't like the language and took to it far less than the others.
"Our kitchen? You are already planning on having a future with Hermione?" Harry said perfectly on the first try, his Russian next to beautiful compared to Ron's. He added a wicked smirk to seal the deal. Ron blushed yet again.
"Elfish, then?" Ron mumbled.
"Let's."
"Roccalas, linda lótë nórelyo," (Éowyn, beautiful flower of your land), "Anvanya yeldë" (Roccoliéva, the fairest daughter of [the] People of Horses), "Le calina ve Naira ilwessë;" (you [are] light like [the] Sun on sky); "Le rín' anda laurëa loxenen," (you [are] crowned by long golden hair), "caltala ve i calimë alcar," (shining like the bright rays of light), "Roccalas aranel turmawendë." (Éowyn princess shieldmaiden.)
"I've heard that before," Harry said in the same, his tongue folding beautifully around the foreign syllables.
"It's a common elfish song, it's not surprising." Ron said softly, the language rolling off his tongue. "Mermish, and then we'll be done. I don't know any to the others they want you to learn."
"All right."
All of a sudden Ron was making the same sort of squeaking noises Harry had heard outside of the lake the previous year. Hermione let out a snorting bout of laughter as she hid her face in her hands. Ron looked, and sounded, positively ridiculous. But, surprisingly enough, Harry knew exactly what it was he was saying. Harry responded in the like with, "Quiet, Ron." Ron closed his mouth with a sheepish smile.
"It's late, we should go to bed." Hermione said, straightening her robes unnecessarily.
"Right, we should." Ron said, looking pointedly at Harry.
Harry got the picture. Ron and Hermione wanted a bit of 'alone' time. "I'll just be going them. Shall I wait up, Ron?" He asked innocently.
"Go away." Ron threw a cushion at Harry who caught it effortlessly.
As Harry made his way up to the boys dorms he rolled the idea of what Ron and Hermione were able to do around in his head. They could date, each other nonetheless. They could plan for their future, again, with each other. They could HAVE a future. Harry knew why he didn't date, knew why he didn't plan. His being involved with someone romantically was asking for Voldemort to come and take them away from him.
//God,// he thought. //My life sucks.//
---
"Hullo everyone!" Fred and George exploded into the Gryffindor common room two nights before the Christmas holiday. "We're sooo well off of late that we have decided to share the wealth!" George announced, pouncing onto the nearest coffee table with Fred, holding a large cardboard box above his head.
"We've got you all presents!"
More than one Gryffindor dove for cover as Fred opened the box. Out of the box came over a hundred leafy green plants tied with red ribbons. The plants, now identifiable as sprigs of mistletoe, danced over the heads of the Gryffindors and over to the walls of the common room. One would have thought the thick stone would have stopped them from going any further, but no. The sprigs moved straight through the walls and into the rest of the school.
This isn't what most of the students were focused on however. The mistletoe had found more than one girl and boy sitting/standing/studying beside each other and claimed them for their own. Shimmering gold boxes were forming around each couple, trapping them to their fate.
Ron banged his fist on one such box trapping him and Hermione. As Ron's fist came into contact with the shimmering shield the cage shrunk a foot, forcing a very stunned Ronald Weasley a foot closer to a blushing Hermione Granger. She said something no-one but Ron could hear. Ron's ears went pink as he said something back to her. Ron bowed his head to hers and brushed his lips gently against hers.
The shield vanished immediately and the mistletoe moved on in search of its next pair of victims. The two shrank back onto the sofa amid more then one hoot of laughter from the common room.
Several of the other trapped couples were far less reluctant to display their affection beneath the enchanted mistletoe. Seamus and Lavender were still going at it long after their mistletoe had lost interest. Dean had started throwing crumpled balls of parchmen at the couple and making gagging noises.
"Smashing!" Fred said loudly over the laughter. "Happy Christmas all! We hope your holidays are _prosperous_." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at the Gryffindors.
Dean hurled a ball of parchment at his head.
---
¸..· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ ·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:- tbc -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*
"Life simply is. We must go with it or it destroys us."
~~~Unknown
Chapter Thirty
"The Christmas holidays are fast approaching," Professor McGonagall addressed her fifth years the Monday before the Christmas holiday was to begin. "And with the holiday's come your O.W.L.s." The whole of the class let loose a collective groan.
"Why are we starting so soon?" Seamus moaned, banging his head on his desk.
"Quiet, Finnigan," McGonagall chided. "If you are just now beginning to study you are very much behind." There was a smattering of laughter from the class.
"Hey, Harry," Ron hissed at his bespectacled friend.
"Yeah?" Harry replied, leaning back in his chair to look at Ron around Hermione's back.
"How was last night?"
"Long, you don't have to wait up for me."
"Yeah, well, what are brothers for?" Ron grinned.
"Brothers?"
"Yeah, brothers." Harry smiled softly at his ginger haired fr---brother. "So, are they going to make you take the O.W.L.s?"
"Yes, but I'm glad they are, I don't want to be treated any differently."
"Let's start language and signal training tonight, alright?"
"Bien," (Okay) Harry said in French, the corners of his mouth quirking.
"Vous parlez français?" (You speak French?) Ron replied in the same, eyes widening.
"What? I can only remember, maybe, five words from a course we were given in primary school."
"C'est un début, Harry, c'est un début," (It's a start, Harry, it's a start.)
Harry tipped his head a bit and looked at Ron.
"We've a _lot_ of work to do."
---
"N.E.W.T.s," Professor McGonagall addressed her seventh years. "Are THE most important test that you will take in your Hogwarts career. "You are all of age and should have _some_ idea as to what you would like to do with the rest of your lives. There is a multitude of avenues available for young, intelligent, able bodied wizards and witches such as yourself. Some of you may choose to sign on with Professional Quidditch teams, as apprentices, join the Ministry, or apply to a University somewhere. Much of this depends upon how well you perform on your exams.
"Now, here are---"
"What if we don't plan on doing any of that?" George interrupted.
"Yeah, what if our plans involve, say, starting our own business? Why would we have to take N.E.W.T.s?" Fred elaborated.
"And you two plan on starting your own business?" McGonagall said, folding her arms over her chest. Frankly, she wasn't very surprised.
"I daresay you mean started already. Our _little_ business is well on its way."
"That's quite an accomplishment given that you couldn't even bother yourself to study for last weeks test."
"We don't like to bother ourselves with piddly little things like tests." George expanded.
"We're entrepreneurs." Fred declared.
"Well, your business won't be very successful if you can't do the paperwork to back it up."
"We've got people for that."
"More like person, Fred."
"We've got a person for that." Fred corrected, never breaking stride.
"And how---" McGonagall was cut off as the bell signaling the end of class rang.
"Good-bye Professor!" George called over his shoulder as he dragged Fred out of the door with him. "See you next year!"
"Ahhh," Fred said with a sigh, throwing one arm around his brother's shoulder and the other around Lee Jordan's. "Transfiguration's over till January and she forgot to assign us any homework for the holiday. What a beautiful world."
---
"Okay," Hermione said, touching the tip of her wand to the centre of Harry's forehead. "This is an absorption spell; it'll be like you're a linguist. You'll be able to analyze, internalize, and reformat the language in only a few minuets of learning it. It'll hurt a bit, are you ready?"
"Yes." Harry said softly, closing his eyes.
"Admorous." Hermione said. Harry's brain seized under the pressure of the charm.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head clear and looked back across the coffee table at them.
"Yeah, let's start." He replied.
"Okay, Hermione and are just going to start talking. Pay attention. You're a smart kid, catch on."
"Ex---excuse me?" Harry stammered.
"Trop tard, nous avons déjà commencé," (Too late, we've already begun,) Ron smirked.
"Salut, Ron, comment sont vous cette soirée?" (Hello, Ron, how are you this evening?) Hermione started professionally.
"Parfaitement excellent, beau, comment allez-vous?" (Perfectly fine, beautiful, how are you?). Ron said grinning like a fool.
"Stop it Ron." Hermione blushed.
"Français, beau, français." (French, beautiful, French.)
"Pardon, mon beau," (Pardon, my lovely) It was Ron's turn to blush.
"J'ai alimenté mon chat hier." "I fed my cat yesterday."
"Oh, vous a faits, comment agréable." (Oh, did you, how nice.)
"J'ai aussi déjeuné aujourd'hui. Je pourrais à peine m'aider de sauter vous." (I also had lunch today. I could hardly help myself from jumping you.)
"Hermione!" Ron's ears were flaming.
"How allons-nous we apprendre n'importe teach des autres languages? Je Know seulement le français et l'anglais." (How are we going to teach him any of the other languages? I only know French and English.) Hermione said.
"Je sais, l'allemand, Mermish, russe et Elvish, mais tout les autres, nous allons avoir besoin de quelqu'un d'autre pour l'aider avec ceux-là. Je ne sais(connais) pas qui quoique." (I know, French, German, Russian, Mermish, and Elvish, but all the others, we're going to need someone else to help him with those. I don't know who though.)
"Votre français est _quite_ bon, Ron. Vous say que vous avez juste appris cet été ?" (Your French is _quite_ good, Ron. You say you just learned this summer?)
"Yeah, c'est pourquoi je ne pouvais pas over." (Yeah, that is why I couldn't have you over.)
"I wish I could have, I was so bored." Hermione said, in French, but Harry was astounded to find himself understanding completely. He decided to try his hand at the language.
"Ainsi, quels étaient les devoirs Charms alors?" (So, what was the Charms homework then?)
"Harry! Bon travail!" (Harry! Good job.)
"Jetzt Deutsche. Unsere Charme-Hausaufgaben waren read, Kapitel zwölf bei cooking des Charmes für ein Quiz am Monday zu lesen." (Now German. Our Charms homework today was to read chapter twelve on cooking charms for a quiz on Wednesday.) "Ich weiß know dann alle dennoch. Sie können nicht in Weasley Haushalt leben ohne zu cook, wie man richtig kocht. Mama ist, uns, ein Zauberer sagen lassen, wenn es zur Küche kommt. Ich höre dass Hermione's not besonders gut daran though." (I already know then all though. You can't live in the Weasley household without knowing how to cook properly. mum is, let us say, a magician when it comes to the kitchen. I hear that Hermione's not very good at it though.)
"Wirklich? Ich hätte gedacht, dass sie ein guter Koch sein würde. Sie ist an etwas anderem gut." (Really? I would have thought that she would be a good cook. She is good at everything else.) Harry replied happily, he was catching on quickly.
"Honestly, she's hopeless. I won't know what to with her in our kitchen. She's going to be making messes all the time. And guess who is going to have to clean them up? Me! That is who!" Ron articulated in rough Russian, he didn't like the language and took to it far less than the others.
"Our kitchen? You are already planning on having a future with Hermione?" Harry said perfectly on the first try, his Russian next to beautiful compared to Ron's. He added a wicked smirk to seal the deal. Ron blushed yet again.
"Elfish, then?" Ron mumbled.
"Let's."
"Roccalas, linda lótë nórelyo," (Éowyn, beautiful flower of your land), "Anvanya yeldë" (Roccoliéva, the fairest daughter of [the] People of Horses), "Le calina ve Naira ilwessë;" (you [are] light like [the] Sun on sky); "Le rín' anda laurëa loxenen," (you [are] crowned by long golden hair), "caltala ve i calimë alcar," (shining like the bright rays of light), "Roccalas aranel turmawendë." (Éowyn princess shieldmaiden.)
"I've heard that before," Harry said in the same, his tongue folding beautifully around the foreign syllables.
"It's a common elfish song, it's not surprising." Ron said softly, the language rolling off his tongue. "Mermish, and then we'll be done. I don't know any to the others they want you to learn."
"All right."
All of a sudden Ron was making the same sort of squeaking noises Harry had heard outside of the lake the previous year. Hermione let out a snorting bout of laughter as she hid her face in her hands. Ron looked, and sounded, positively ridiculous. But, surprisingly enough, Harry knew exactly what it was he was saying. Harry responded in the like with, "Quiet, Ron." Ron closed his mouth with a sheepish smile.
"It's late, we should go to bed." Hermione said, straightening her robes unnecessarily.
"Right, we should." Ron said, looking pointedly at Harry.
Harry got the picture. Ron and Hermione wanted a bit of 'alone' time. "I'll just be going them. Shall I wait up, Ron?" He asked innocently.
"Go away." Ron threw a cushion at Harry who caught it effortlessly.
As Harry made his way up to the boys dorms he rolled the idea of what Ron and Hermione were able to do around in his head. They could date, each other nonetheless. They could plan for their future, again, with each other. They could HAVE a future. Harry knew why he didn't date, knew why he didn't plan. His being involved with someone romantically was asking for Voldemort to come and take them away from him.
//God,// he thought. //My life sucks.//
---
"Hullo everyone!" Fred and George exploded into the Gryffindor common room two nights before the Christmas holiday. "We're sooo well off of late that we have decided to share the wealth!" George announced, pouncing onto the nearest coffee table with Fred, holding a large cardboard box above his head.
"We've got you all presents!"
More than one Gryffindor dove for cover as Fred opened the box. Out of the box came over a hundred leafy green plants tied with red ribbons. The plants, now identifiable as sprigs of mistletoe, danced over the heads of the Gryffindors and over to the walls of the common room. One would have thought the thick stone would have stopped them from going any further, but no. The sprigs moved straight through the walls and into the rest of the school.
This isn't what most of the students were focused on however. The mistletoe had found more than one girl and boy sitting/standing/studying beside each other and claimed them for their own. Shimmering gold boxes were forming around each couple, trapping them to their fate.
Ron banged his fist on one such box trapping him and Hermione. As Ron's fist came into contact with the shimmering shield the cage shrunk a foot, forcing a very stunned Ronald Weasley a foot closer to a blushing Hermione Granger. She said something no-one but Ron could hear. Ron's ears went pink as he said something back to her. Ron bowed his head to hers and brushed his lips gently against hers.
The shield vanished immediately and the mistletoe moved on in search of its next pair of victims. The two shrank back onto the sofa amid more then one hoot of laughter from the common room.
Several of the other trapped couples were far less reluctant to display their affection beneath the enchanted mistletoe. Seamus and Lavender were still going at it long after their mistletoe had lost interest. Dean had started throwing crumpled balls of parchmen at the couple and making gagging noises.
"Smashing!" Fred said loudly over the laughter. "Happy Christmas all! We hope your holidays are _prosperous_." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at the Gryffindors.
Dean hurled a ball of parchment at his head.
---
¸..· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ ·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:- tbc -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*