Chapter Two: Of Jellybeans and Summer
It was the end of another year at Hogwarts and things were faring considerably better for Harry, Ron, and I than in any other year thus far. This was to be our last summer as students of Hogwarts and You-Know-Who was finally dead. Harry had disappeared for a few days, leaving every member of staff and student body alike in an uproar. When, at long last, he staggered into the great hall it was to announce that he had defeated the Dark Lord. Thunderous applause ensued and, after a few days in the hospital wing along with one of his mysterious talks with Dumbledore, Harry was good to go. We all still worried about him of course. There was something missing in his eyes, a kind of sparkle, which he would slowly regain over the next few years. But he still managed his end-of-the-year exams with scores above and beyond merely "decent."
As for me, well I was still with Victor Krum and, quite as far as I was concerned, we were madly in love. Ron was with Luna Lovegood who, as it turned out, was not as crazy as we had once made her out to be. Harry began dating Ginny shortly after his return, much to our surprise and her delight. Ron was even taking things pretty well now that the idea of his little sister dating had begun to sink in. I guess if it had to be anyone, he would have had Harry filling that position.
So we were on the Hogwarts Express, headed for home, talking about nothing in particular and wondering what we would do during our final year at Hogwarts with no You-Know-Who to worry about. Luna and Ginny decided to join us in our compartment about 30 minutes into the journey and we were all pleased to see Ginny. Now when I said that Luna wasn't really as crazy as we had once thought, I didn't mean that she wasn't still a little loopy sometimes. Who knows what Ron ever saw in her, but then, who knows what he ever saw in me?
"What are you guys doing?" asked Luna as she took a seat smack between Ron and I. Luna always seemed a bit jealous of the friendship that Ron and I had. Maybe she wished that she had the same kind of background with him or maybe she was just being the same old Loony Luna. Either way it got a bit annoying to have her constantly striving to distance Ron from myself.
"Not much Luna, what brings you to this end of the train?" asked Ron. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, the wrong thing to say.
"What do you mean what brings me? Don't you want to see me? Rather sit and chat with you dear old friends and never worry about boring Luna? Hate to have your girlfriend of six months stop in to visit!" and with that Luna stormed out. Luna made a habit of stirring up a little trouble now and then just to keep the relationship interesting (though for whom, no one was certain).
Can't say that I blame her for it really. Upon reflection, I realize that Ron had hardly given her two pecks on the cheek by the time they'd been dating five months and by six months he was just beginning to kiss her lips. Closed-mouth, no-tongue, utterly spit-less kisses mind you. I can't say that in her position I would still have been with him but I think that they were just using one another to fill up some space. Like hanging a particularly bland portrait on an empty wall until you can find something better.
We all just sort of looked at Ron for a moment and then I let out a snort of laughter, which was soon adopted by the rest of the compartment. It took us all a good while to settle ourselves properly again at which point Harry took out a pack of exploding snap cards and began to deal himself a hand of solitaire.
"Honestly Ron, why do you put up with all that drama? You could do better than that. I mean, If I, bookish Hermione Granger, could land an international Quidditch star... well just think how well you could do!" I said to him as I settled back in my seat.
"Oh, well, you know that I would have better if it were at all possible. I'm just waiting around till I find somebody really amazing and brilliant for myself and then there won't be any more messing around with... well, you know," Ron laughed. I probably should have taken the hint then and there... Ron was after me. It would have made a world of difference in the way that the next year turned out. But silly me, I had to overlook what he said, what I could have had. Honestly, as smart as people say I am, I can be a real Pratt sometimes.
The four of us talked for a while. Harry's game of solitaire kept blowing up in his face, quite literally, and Ron kept trying to have an animated discussion with me about Quidditch (which was turning out to be rather dull on my part and quite frustrating for him). Just when we thought that Harry's eyebrows couldn't take another singeing, we heard the food trolley coming down the train.
"Oh! I have an idea!" said Ginny suddenly.
"What?" I asked in a mild tone, feeling no real interest. Ginny went off explaining something that sounded an awful lot like a muggle drinking game. Something to do with Every Flavor Beans and other peoples mannerisms.
All in all it was a pretty odd game. Ginny later admitted to having picked it up while hanging around Luna, no surprise there. So when the smiling food-cart lady finally reached out compartment we all had our money ready to buy a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and a bottle of pumpkin juice apiece.
"Okay now, everybody think of an action and you eat a random bean every time someone else does that action. Oh and be creative, hate to pick something too obvious eh?" Ginny added as an afterthought. I couldn't believe that we had decided to play such a silly game, but if I could just stomach all thirty or so beans I would be in the running to make some cash.
Honestly I can't think what relevance any of this has to anything in particular but it brings me back. It's one of those things that I can remember with a smile because it was the last time for quite a long time after that, that I was simply a friend to them. It was probably the last time for a long time that I was happy.
If memory serves me correctly, I believe that Ginny got ill and ended up needing to take a swig of pumpkin juice which took her out of the running. Harry picked something stupid like "Blinking" and ended up finishing his bag in about two minutes, leaving Ron and I to guess one another's chosen actions.
"Bloody hell Hermione, I can't for the life of me think of what action you have!" erupted Ron when I still had twice as many beans as he.
"Well I suppose that I'm just good at this game," I replied as I plopped a raspberry bean into my mouth. "Oh and Ron, you're eating a bean every time anyone touches their hair. I've known for about five minutes now." Ron looked at me in defeat.
"Damn Hermione, how do you do it? And what in bloody hell is your action? I mean, couldn't you have picked something just a little easier?"
"Didn't you notice that every time you complained I would eat a bean. Pay up!" Everybody had a good laugh and before we knew, the train was at Kings Cross. Victor was there to take me back to his house for the first week of the summer and Harry was to go home with Ron and Ginny.
After saying our good-byes we all went our separate ways, home for the summer. We would all be meeting up again at Ron's house for the last few weeks of the holidays to buy school supplies and spend our last real summer together before we had to grow up into the witch's and wizard's that we knew we must eventually become. I didn't really know that what would be happening over that summer was going to change my life, and me, forever. If I had known it then, I might have been worried about what was to come. But then, if I'd known, things might have ended very differently for all of us.
A/N: I would like to take this oppertunity to thank my first four reviewers for being, well, my first four reviewres. So here's to Mandiemalfoy, NatiFcs28, MyKonstantine, and Natali. Thank you for your reviews and I hope that you will continue to read Love Fool for many chapters to come!
Disclaimer: The title "Love Fool" was taken from a song of the same name by The Cardigans. There is also a story with the title "Love's Fool" posted on FF.Net which has no relation whatsoever to this story. While they both deal with a Ron/Hermione/ThirdCharacter relationship, I had never read that story prior to the creation of this one and I hope that nobody feels that any part of my story is stolen from that one.
It was the end of another year at Hogwarts and things were faring considerably better for Harry, Ron, and I than in any other year thus far. This was to be our last summer as students of Hogwarts and You-Know-Who was finally dead. Harry had disappeared for a few days, leaving every member of staff and student body alike in an uproar. When, at long last, he staggered into the great hall it was to announce that he had defeated the Dark Lord. Thunderous applause ensued and, after a few days in the hospital wing along with one of his mysterious talks with Dumbledore, Harry was good to go. We all still worried about him of course. There was something missing in his eyes, a kind of sparkle, which he would slowly regain over the next few years. But he still managed his end-of-the-year exams with scores above and beyond merely "decent."
As for me, well I was still with Victor Krum and, quite as far as I was concerned, we were madly in love. Ron was with Luna Lovegood who, as it turned out, was not as crazy as we had once made her out to be. Harry began dating Ginny shortly after his return, much to our surprise and her delight. Ron was even taking things pretty well now that the idea of his little sister dating had begun to sink in. I guess if it had to be anyone, he would have had Harry filling that position.
So we were on the Hogwarts Express, headed for home, talking about nothing in particular and wondering what we would do during our final year at Hogwarts with no You-Know-Who to worry about. Luna and Ginny decided to join us in our compartment about 30 minutes into the journey and we were all pleased to see Ginny. Now when I said that Luna wasn't really as crazy as we had once thought, I didn't mean that she wasn't still a little loopy sometimes. Who knows what Ron ever saw in her, but then, who knows what he ever saw in me?
"What are you guys doing?" asked Luna as she took a seat smack between Ron and I. Luna always seemed a bit jealous of the friendship that Ron and I had. Maybe she wished that she had the same kind of background with him or maybe she was just being the same old Loony Luna. Either way it got a bit annoying to have her constantly striving to distance Ron from myself.
"Not much Luna, what brings you to this end of the train?" asked Ron. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, the wrong thing to say.
"What do you mean what brings me? Don't you want to see me? Rather sit and chat with you dear old friends and never worry about boring Luna? Hate to have your girlfriend of six months stop in to visit!" and with that Luna stormed out. Luna made a habit of stirring up a little trouble now and then just to keep the relationship interesting (though for whom, no one was certain).
Can't say that I blame her for it really. Upon reflection, I realize that Ron had hardly given her two pecks on the cheek by the time they'd been dating five months and by six months he was just beginning to kiss her lips. Closed-mouth, no-tongue, utterly spit-less kisses mind you. I can't say that in her position I would still have been with him but I think that they were just using one another to fill up some space. Like hanging a particularly bland portrait on an empty wall until you can find something better.
We all just sort of looked at Ron for a moment and then I let out a snort of laughter, which was soon adopted by the rest of the compartment. It took us all a good while to settle ourselves properly again at which point Harry took out a pack of exploding snap cards and began to deal himself a hand of solitaire.
"Honestly Ron, why do you put up with all that drama? You could do better than that. I mean, If I, bookish Hermione Granger, could land an international Quidditch star... well just think how well you could do!" I said to him as I settled back in my seat.
"Oh, well, you know that I would have better if it were at all possible. I'm just waiting around till I find somebody really amazing and brilliant for myself and then there won't be any more messing around with... well, you know," Ron laughed. I probably should have taken the hint then and there... Ron was after me. It would have made a world of difference in the way that the next year turned out. But silly me, I had to overlook what he said, what I could have had. Honestly, as smart as people say I am, I can be a real Pratt sometimes.
The four of us talked for a while. Harry's game of solitaire kept blowing up in his face, quite literally, and Ron kept trying to have an animated discussion with me about Quidditch (which was turning out to be rather dull on my part and quite frustrating for him). Just when we thought that Harry's eyebrows couldn't take another singeing, we heard the food trolley coming down the train.
"Oh! I have an idea!" said Ginny suddenly.
"What?" I asked in a mild tone, feeling no real interest. Ginny went off explaining something that sounded an awful lot like a muggle drinking game. Something to do with Every Flavor Beans and other peoples mannerisms.
All in all it was a pretty odd game. Ginny later admitted to having picked it up while hanging around Luna, no surprise there. So when the smiling food-cart lady finally reached out compartment we all had our money ready to buy a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and a bottle of pumpkin juice apiece.
"Okay now, everybody think of an action and you eat a random bean every time someone else does that action. Oh and be creative, hate to pick something too obvious eh?" Ginny added as an afterthought. I couldn't believe that we had decided to play such a silly game, but if I could just stomach all thirty or so beans I would be in the running to make some cash.
Honestly I can't think what relevance any of this has to anything in particular but it brings me back. It's one of those things that I can remember with a smile because it was the last time for quite a long time after that, that I was simply a friend to them. It was probably the last time for a long time that I was happy.
If memory serves me correctly, I believe that Ginny got ill and ended up needing to take a swig of pumpkin juice which took her out of the running. Harry picked something stupid like "Blinking" and ended up finishing his bag in about two minutes, leaving Ron and I to guess one another's chosen actions.
"Bloody hell Hermione, I can't for the life of me think of what action you have!" erupted Ron when I still had twice as many beans as he.
"Well I suppose that I'm just good at this game," I replied as I plopped a raspberry bean into my mouth. "Oh and Ron, you're eating a bean every time anyone touches their hair. I've known for about five minutes now." Ron looked at me in defeat.
"Damn Hermione, how do you do it? And what in bloody hell is your action? I mean, couldn't you have picked something just a little easier?"
"Didn't you notice that every time you complained I would eat a bean. Pay up!" Everybody had a good laugh and before we knew, the train was at Kings Cross. Victor was there to take me back to his house for the first week of the summer and Harry was to go home with Ron and Ginny.
After saying our good-byes we all went our separate ways, home for the summer. We would all be meeting up again at Ron's house for the last few weeks of the holidays to buy school supplies and spend our last real summer together before we had to grow up into the witch's and wizard's that we knew we must eventually become. I didn't really know that what would be happening over that summer was going to change my life, and me, forever. If I had known it then, I might have been worried about what was to come. But then, if I'd known, things might have ended very differently for all of us.
A/N: I would like to take this oppertunity to thank my first four reviewers for being, well, my first four reviewres. So here's to Mandiemalfoy, NatiFcs28, MyKonstantine, and Natali. Thank you for your reviews and I hope that you will continue to read Love Fool for many chapters to come!
Disclaimer: The title "Love Fool" was taken from a song of the same name by The Cardigans. There is also a story with the title "Love's Fool" posted on FF.Net which has no relation whatsoever to this story. While they both deal with a Ron/Hermione/ThirdCharacter relationship, I had never read that story prior to the creation of this one and I hope that nobody feels that any part of my story is stolen from that one.