As the three walked into the DATDA classroom and took their seats, "Whatever, besides, why talk about that when we could be thinking about our fist trip to Hogsmayous."
"Yeah, I need to stock up on candy, Grad and George ate all of mine that I had stock piled for the summer."
With that the classes of the day passed and the weekend came, along with it came the Hogsmayous trip.
"It's so nice to get off the school grounds," Hermione giggled as she skipped ahead of the two boys.
"She's happy today," Ron remarked in a monotone voice.
"Let her go, at least we get to go to the village," Harry sighed as they walked down the schools long drive.
After the three had hit the candy store, they squeezed their way out into the street.
"What do you two say to a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks?" Hermione asked as they stood outside on the slightly crowded street.
"Sure."
"Why not."
With that the three entered into the Three Broomsticks. Harry and Ron gave Hermione their money as they went to go find a table in the ever crowded inn. The boys found a table towards the back of the room, shortly after they had found a table, Hermione came back with their money and no drinks.
"Where're the drinks?" Ron asked as Hermione slid onto the bench beside him.
"They were busy at the bar, but the girl said she would bring them over as soon as she got a chance."
"Girl?!? What girl, isn't Madame Mixie the only one who works here?" Ron questioned.
"Here you three go," the trio heard all of the sudden making all of them jump. "Opps, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," the girl giggled.
"Are you new here?" Harry asked as the waitress/bar tender.
"Yup, just got here in September," the waitress nodded as she placed a buttterbeer in front of each person. "There you go," she replied as she wiped her hands off on a rag tided through one of her loops on her jeans. "Now, if you excused me I gotta get back to work."
"Wait!" Hermione yelped as she started to turn around and leave.
"What is it?" The waitress asked turning back to the trio.
"If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"
"I'm sixteen, why?"
"Well, I was thinking, shouldn't you be in school with us?"
"Naw, I don't go to school, I haven't been to one in years, now if you don't mind..."
"Why not?" Ron asked.
"Ron!"
"What Hermione?!?"
"Would you two cut it out?"
"Oh, stuff it Harry."
The trio stopped their quick sqwable to look up and see the waitress looking at them with one eyebrow quirked up. "Okay then, later!" with that the waitress left to return to the bar.
"Nice job you two, look what you did," Hermione hissed.
"Us?!? You were the one who snapped at me for asking a question!" Ron stated incredulously as he pointed at Hermione.
"Well, that was one of my few chances to get another friend, one who happens to be a girl. And you had to go and screw it up!"
"So what, now you don't want to hang out with the two of us?" Ron was shocked, as was Harry.
"I would like to hang out with a girl every once in a while and she seemed nice!" Hermione defended.
All of the sudden the three realized just how quite it had gotten in the inn, the usual murmer had stopped completely; now you could have heard a pin drop. The three quickly looked around and noticed the point of attention was half way between the bar and them. It was the waitress they had been talking to earlier and a tall troll-looking man. The man had his arm across the waitress's shoulder and a pint of beer in his other hand. They couldn't see the waitress's face because her head was bowed and her mid-back hair was forming a curtain around her face.
"Hey baby, come with me and I'll make sure to treat you right. I might even buy you a tighter pair of pants hun, those you are wearing a little loose, I could probably squeeze into them," the troll laughed loudly as he brought the waitress closer to him.
The three looked on and noticed that not even one person in the room was moving at all to help the girl. Everyone was simply standing and staring at the troll and girl. The gang saw the girl pick up her head and saw her face since she was now turned towards them.
"Hermione, did her eyes always have gold in them?" Ron whispered as they looked at the girl, her face in a scowl.
"I thought they were only brown," Hermione whispered back as the girl slowly turned her head to look at the troll that had now almost pulled her into his lap.
"Hey buddy, do I look like I'm for sale or somethin'? I don't see any sign!" The girl stated as she wrenched herself out of his grip. The man simply blinked and looked at her confused.
"What do you think you're doing? Get back here!" the man yelled as he slammed his empty fist on the wooden table.
"No, now get out of here."
"What?!?"
"You heard me, G-E-T O-U-T."
"No, I'm not leaving."
"Fine, have it your way," with that the waitress walked seductively towards the man and flipped her hair over her shoulder. The guy was now sitting there with a goofy grin on his face and was patting his knee inviting her to take a seat. The waitress walked towards him and put her hand on his chest...before grabbing a handful of his shirt and dragging him through the parting sea of people towards the door. She then kicked open the door and chucked the man out of the door. "Get out of here you lazy drunk, and don't ever let me catch you in here in that condition again!" the waitress stated calmly as she slammed the door shut and turned around to find all the eyes in the room on her. "WHAT?!?" she asked loudly.
"ANDY!" the room heard bellowed through the room. They all quickly recognized the voice to be the one and only owner of the inn. Madame Mixie quickly walked up to the young waitress now identified as Andy, her red high-heels clicking loudly in the silent room. "What in the world do you think you were doing?!? That's no way to treat a customer, now you can be the one to get out!" With that Madame Mixie turned away from the waitress and headed towards the bar.
All of those in the inn watched as the girl grabbed a bag from a shelf above the door and gave a quick nod before leaving out the door; a small amount of snow blew through the door showing that it had began snowing again.
After Andy had left the normal noise level and activity slowly returned to the inn. Hermione, Ron, and Harry all looked at each other before nodding and hurrying out of the door to follow Andy. They quickly spotted her about two shops down.
"Andy, wait!" Hermione shouted as she ran after her, the two boys following quickly after.
Andy stopped walking and turned around to face them. "Can I help you?" she asked as she stood there with the duffle bag across her chest and dressed in boots, baggy jeans, and a long sleeved shirt.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked as she started walking next to Andy with Harry and Ron.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
Hermione just stared at her as Ron supplied an answer, "Well, you just got fired, you're out here without a coat and it's snowing. Just to name a few." Hermione elbowed him in the ribs a little.
Andy simply chuckled and shook her head. "Don't worry about it, I was going to be moving on soon anyways. I was starting to wear out my welcome here, now if you excuse me, I have to find some where to stay outside of the snow storm before it starts to get dark."
"Wait, hold on a sec. You need to find a place to stay? Why don't you just go home to your parents, I mean you just lost your job not your house," Ron said as they walked with her up toward the shreking shack. "I mean your parents must live around here somewhere, right?"
"They don't," was the only answer they were supplied.
"Well then, where do they live?"
"Six feet under, now I think you should head back towards the village, it's an hour 'til sunset and you got to get back to the school," Andy said as she continued walking and they stopped staring after her.
"Where will you go?" Harry shouted after her.
"Where I can find work, after all, I am a roamer," she said over her shoulder.
The three looked at each other and then at her, Harry then ran after her. (they do a lot of running don't they?) "Hold on a second, why don't you come back with us to Hogwarts, I mean where are you going to go in the snow, near sunset, and also what is a roamer?"
"A roamer is someone without a home who goes from place to place looking for work," Hermione stated matter-of-factly.
The two boys simply stared at Hermione and then to Andy. "You don't have a home?" Ron asked sounding shocked.
"No I don't, and before you ask. Yes, my parents are dead, and no, I can't go back with you to Hogwarts, it isn't allowed. Besides, I know a place where I can stay, I can get there in a half hour or so, I have friends in this area, so maybe I will see you around, or you can owl me," with that Andy quickly hurried down the hill and around a curve in the landscape.
"Her parents are gone?" Harry whispered as he watched the last place he had seen her.
"Yeah, and she doesn't have a home," Ron replied.
"It must be really hard, come on you guys. Andy was right, we need to get back to school, maybe we can tell Dumbledor about her and maybe he will let her come to school, it's worth a shot right?" Hermione asked as she turned back towards the village and stated to walk back towards the school.
"Yeah, I guess. We could ask to talk to him after dinner tonight, I just wonder where she'll be by that time," Harry sighed as they head in through the Main Entrance of the school.