Well, here I am again, faithful readers, to give you a few of my notes and greetings before the story proceeds. (Don't you just hate this? tee hee). Onto the individual shoutouts:
tennisprincess: Thanks! That's exactly what one of my friends told me lol. So hopefully you're right and some people really ARE just reading this...anyhow, thanks for the vote of confidence :-)
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That's about it, I think. I just wanna say again though (even though this is getting redundant) that I really appreciate you guys. Little review emails make me smile all day! And any and all of you please feel free to email or IM me...the info is in my little profile thingee. And as you all know, I don't own Harry Potter. On with the story!
A Temper Tantrum, a Ferret, and New Love?
Once they had all arrived through the floo network in Hogsmeade, plans were immediately made for Ron to get some lunch. He was already hot-tempered, and the hungrier he was, the more prickly he became. "Well, can't we just get some food in the Three Broomsticks?" Ron suggested, "We haven't been there in ages, and it's been awhile since I've had a good butterbeer."
"Um, actually, Ron," Hermione started, "why don't you, Ginny, and Luna go on. Harry and I aren't really all that hungry." Harry glanced over at her in bewilderment and she tipped him a wink. He really was quite hungry, but he supposed he could wait to find out whatever Hermione was planning. He hadn't been alone with her all day.
"What?!" Ron almost shouted. "I thought the purpose of this trip was to do things together? You're already starting to leave me out of things…I knew this was going to happen."
Harry didn't even notice how upset his friend was because he was too busy fuming over Ron letting out their secret to Ginny and Luna. "Thanks a lot, Ron. Thanks for keeping your mouth shut," he said as he glared at him.
"It's okay, Harry. I already told them in the shop when we were getting our robes," Hermione explained. "I hope that's alright. I'm sure they won't tell anyone until we're ready for everyone to know."
Harry looked down at her and saw the worry in her eyes. He didn't want her to be scared of him ever and he certainly didn't want to lose his temper with her. He only wanted to make her happy. "Of course…that's okay," he replied, in what he hoped were soothing tones. "I'm sure everything will be fine."
"No, everything will not be fine," Ron spat. "You're already forgetting about me. Why would you need me when you have her? Now you have your best friend and a girlfriend all in one…I'm nothing but the third wheel. C'mon, Ginny, let's go." He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off in the direction of the Three Broomsticks.
"Harry, Hermione!" she called, "Meet us here in about an hour! We still have the floo powder!" Luna ran after Ron and Ginny and all three of them disappeared behind the door of the building.
"Do you reckon we should go after him?" Harry asked.
"No," Hermione sighed, "I think we should just give him a little time to cool down. You know how he is. Maybe Ginny will be able to talk some sense into him."
"What do you want to do now, then?"
"I suppose we should go visit the twins," she said, almost grudgingly. The last thing either of them wanted to do was go visit Ron's brothers at the moment.
"Yeah, they threatened to test their inventions on me if I didn't come see them," Harry remembered.
"Alright then, let's go." With that, Hermione linked her arm through Harry's and started leading the way to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. He looked at her with alarm and she said, "It's alright…this is a perfectly friendly thing to do. No one will suspect a thing."
Harry enjoyed the walk to the store despite himself. He felt terrible for feeling so happy when his best friend was mad at him, but it was hard to remember the bad things in his life when Hermione was close enough that he could smell her strawberry shampoo and feel the warmth of her body next to his. They talked about the impending term, classmates, and various other things, though each was careful not to make any mention of Ron.
When the reached the twin's store, Hermione withdrew her arm from Harry's and walked through the door. They had to push through crowds of people to try to find Fred or George, until finally Harry spotted Fred putting some things away behind the counter. He and Hermione made their way across the store to get to him.
"George!" he shouted as soon as he spotted the two of them. "Look who's come to see us in action!"
George waved and fought the masses to get over to where they were standing. "So, Harry, Hermione," he greeted, "what's new?"
Well, Harry thought, Hermione and I are snogging now, we're doing it in secret, oh, and your brother hates both of us now as well. And you? "Er…nothing much, I suppose," he replied out loud, "I guess I don't have to ask you how business is doing."
"Yes," Hermione added, as she surveyed the store, "you seem to be doing quite well for yourselves here."
"Does that mean you forgive us for leaving Hogwarts?" Fred asked her with alook of mock terrorin his eyes.
"I suppose I had to learn that school isn't for everyone," she said thoughtfully. "I think your store is great - not that I would actually use anything here, but it sure seems like other people do."
"Well, Harry, it seems that Hermione thinks she doesn't need our magical tricks and treats-" Fred started.
"-but anything you want-" George butted in.
"-within reason, George, within reason…we have to turn a profit you know."
"Yes, of course…anything you want - within reason - we'll be willing to give to you for free for helping us start this grand place!" George finished. Hermione was glad to see that Fred had some business sense at least. She had had her doubts about how they would be running the place without any training or experience, but it seemed that Fred knew what he was doing.
"Oh, that's alright," Harry said graciously. "I wanted to help you guys out and I didn't want the money. I think your store is smashing…I don't need anything, anyhow."
The twins wouldn't hear of him leaving without a little something, so they decided to take it upon themselves to figure out what he would need for the new term. They began to get even busier than they were when Harry and Hermione had first walked in, so they had to get back to work soon thereafter.
"Great to see you two!" they shouted in unison. "Come back soon! Say hi to Ron and Ginny if they don't make it in!" Harry cringed as he heard Ron's name and remembered what happened earlier in the afternoon, but just nodded and waved as he and Hermione made their way back out into the street.
He was carrying two overstuffed bags filled with various tricks from the store, despite his pleas that he didn't need them. "Want to take a breather?" he asked Hermione. "There were a lot of people in there."
She nodded, and without even asking the other they both just started walking towards the Shrieking Shack. It was sort of an unspoken bond they both had with that place after their third year. She was a little worried because it would undoubtedly remind Harry of Sirius, but his feet seemed to be turning towards there as well, so she didn't dwell on the thought.
They walked in silence, rather than the animated chatter that had painted their walk to the twin's store, but it was still just as comfortable. Hermione knew that if Harry wanted to talk to her, he would, but in his own time. It was no good to try to force him to talk to her if he didn't want to now, it would only make him resentful and angry.
When they reached the Shack, they just stood and stared at it. After a few moments, Harry reached for her hand and began to stroke her fingers. "It all seems so long ago now, doesn't it?" he asked in hardly more than a whisper.
She just nodded. She smiled and leaned into him at the pressure of his hand, and he gently turned her around. "Harry…"
"It's always been you. Just being here with you, this place has so many memories for us…" he trailed off. "You were always there for me. You came to help save Sirius twice with me, even when you didn't agree with me last time. You're brave, Hermione. Being here with you makes me want to thank you for all that you've done for me." He tilted her chin up with his hand so that she was looking up at him. He leaned down to kiss her, not caring at the moment if anyone saw. He wanted everyone to know that he was in love with this girl that had risked so many things for him - that loved him for who he was.
Hermione began to melt into the kiss as it got deeper and more demanding. When they had gotten to the Shrieking Shack it seemed like a perfect place for them to be alone. Then, all of asudden they heard, "What's this?" in a familiar, sneering tone of voice. Harry broke off the kiss abruptly and whipped around.
"Malfoy." he stated dully, "What a real pleasure to see you here." He didn't know why it would surprise him that Draco Malfoy would find the most inopportune moment to come and torment him.
"So, what have we here?" Malfoy directed at his loyal followers, Crabbe and Goyle. "An orphan and a mudblood…how touching." He smirked, "And all along I thought this was going to be the mudblood and Weasley's little love nest. How wrong I was…although I should have known it all along. You do have a knack for trying to save people. And the mudblood will need saving soon enough."
Harry tried to rush at Malfoy, but Hermione held him back. "There's three of them," she whispered into his ear, "You're outnumbered and it isn't worth it to get into trouble before the term even starts."
As much as he hated to admit it, he knew she was right. He had gotten into enough trouble over the last five years to last him a lifetime. He knew there was more to come, so it would be best to just try to walk away from the situation. He took her hand and shoved past Malfoy and his cronies.
"That's how it's going to be, eh, Potter? My father was right about you. Foolish ideas about saving people…being a real hero, but you haven't got any real guts at all. Funny the hat sorted you into Gryffindor, isn't it?" he taunted.
Harry started to slow down, but Hermione continued to drag him back towards the town. "It's got to be getting close to time to meet Ron and Ginny, anyhow," she told Harry.
He nodded, tight-lipped, and allowed her to lead him away as Malfoy's laughter rang in his ears. "Wait til everyone at school hears about this! An orphan and a mudblood…" he repeated to their retreating backs.
"I can't believe the nerve they have!" Ron spat. He was wringing his napkin into tiny little pieces as he, Ginny, and Luna sat at the table waiting for their food and butterbeers. He was a dangerous shade of red, and Luna kept sneaking glances at him when she didn't think he would see her.
"Ron, I'm sure they didn't mean anything by it," Ginny soothed. "Maybe they just really weren't hungry…or maybe they had something else they had to do. They could have went to visit the twins!"
"No." he stated. "They're just sick of having me around, that's all. It was convenient for them before, having me around, but now that they're together, they don't need me." He was starting to sound less mad, and more like a whining three year old, the girls noticed. Ginny smiled, because that was a sign that he was winding down.
She opened her mouth to tell him that wasn't true, when Luna surprised them both. "Don't be stupid, Ronald Weasley. Everyone knows that you three are best friends - that you're inseparable. But now they're together, and you said you were okay with that. You can't be inseparable anymore, but you can be best friends. Do you really want to watch them snogging all the time? I suggest you find a girlfriend of your own…maybe then you won't feel so left out."
Ron and Ginny stared at her, open-mouthed. Just then, their food was dropped down in front of them at their table. Ron shut his mouth, apparently decided to ignore what Luna said to him, and dug into his roast beef and mashed potatoes. Ginny took that as a sign to do the same, and Luna regained the normal, dreamy look she had in her eyes.
"Ronald? Could you please pass me the salt?" she asked sweetly, completely disregarding her outburst a few moments earlier.
"Do you think we should go in or just wait for them out here?" Harry asked nervously. He wasn't too thrilled to see Ron again after what happened the last time.
"I think maybe it's time for us to go see him. He's had about an hour to cool down. Besides, Ginny told us to be here now," she replied, with the same nervous quality to her voice.
They opened the door and stood in the doorway, blinking as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. "Hey!" they heard Ginny shout. "We're over here!"
Hermione saw the redheaded girl waving to them from the far left side of the room. With trepidation, Harry and she made their way over to the table they were sitting at. Despite himself, Harry smirked when he saw Luna sitting on the right side of Ron, talking to him in a rather lively manner, for her.
Ron looked over at Harry and Hermione and saw how tensely they were looking back at him. He didn't want his two best friends to be scared of him, and school certainly wouldn't be the same without them. "So, uh…sorry for, well, for sort of blowing up before," he said between mouthfuls of mashed potato.
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "Thanks, Ron. Though next time you apologize, maybe you could swallow first."
Harry grinned, relieved to see that things were relatively back to normal. Then he remembered the run in with Malfoy and his face darkened immediately.
As soon as Ron had finished "stuffing his face", as Ginny put it mildly, they paid and tried to figure out whether or not they wanted to go home or walk around Hogsmeade a little more. Ron, Ginny, and Luna, of course, hadn't really walked around at all, since they were eating lunch the whole time. It was decided that they would stay for another couple of hours or so, and they started to make their way to Honeydukes, at Ron's request.
"I see you already made your way over to the twin's store," Ron noted as he saw the two gigantic bags Harry was carrying. "You must have bought the whole store…want me to take one of those?"
"Thanks," Harry said as he handed one of them over to Ron. "Actually, they insisted that I take these things as 'samples' and 'payment' for giving them the money to start the place. You can take whatever you want, if there's something you like in there."
"Well, I wouldn't mind having a few of the Skivving Snackboxes…they have been revised, so I could get out of a few lessons with Professor Snape."
Harry smirked, "Better save a few of those for me, then. Speaking of Snape, we saw his favorite student while we were out…" And so beginning, Harry related to Ron he and Hermoine's encounter with Malfoy at the Shrieking Shack.
"That little…ferret," Ron said viciously. "He better watch his back this year."
"Well, I'm not too worried about that right now," Harry lied. "Anyhow, I noticed you and Luna seemed to be getting along a little better at the Three Broomsticks, there."
Ron blushed. "Uh, yeah…she seems to be a nice girl," he stammered. "Not so bad, I guess, once you get past the fact she's mental."
Harry just smiled knowingly and didn't say anything more on the subject.
Ginny, Hermione, and Luna trailed in a group behind the boys, where they were having an entirely different conversation. "I'm so glad you could talk sense into him, Gin," Hermione said gratefully.
"Me? Nope, wasn't me…you can thank our friend Luna here for that one," Ginny laughed.
"It wasn't much," Luna piped in. "I just told him a few things he ought to remember, is all."
Hermione giggled as she wondered what those might be, and figured that she might not even want to know.