Ok, sorry i lied, the next chapter will be called Beer, Blood and smoke. Sorry about that :)
Thanks to all my reviewers!
LittleMissPadfoot- i love your name! and thats a really good idea, i think i might incorporate that later on:)
amrawo- thank you! here's your update :)
lilred-07- thanks! i'll try to keep the updates frequent :)
JTBJAB- haha well moral for now anyways... wink
The all mighty and powerfulM- i hope this one is interesting!
profet- thank you so much! i tried to include a few funny parts- Ron's character is hilarious to begin with thanks to the genius that is J.K. Rowling- but i'm glad it worked :)
I don't own anything Harry Potter, everything belongs to J.K. Rowling
The next day, Hermione woke to the sound of rain gently falling on the rooftop. She glanced at the clock and seeing that it was already 10, slipped out of bed to get dressed. Suddenly she remembered the promise she had made to both Harry and Ron, and decided to pick out her outfit for tonight. She ran her hand along the many clothes now hanging in the armoire, and stopped at a deep red and lacy tank top. She pulled off her pajama top and pulled on the tank, and took her hair down out of the ponytail it had been in. She studied herself in the mirror that was conveniently placed on the door of the armoire. The deep red color of the shirt looked incredible with her dark curly locks now cascading over her deeply tanned shoulders. She smiled and turned this way and that, excited for tonight. This was what she needed to get Sirius out of her head- she was sure she could find a cute guy to take her mind of things for a while. Taking off the shirt, she placed it on the bed and quickly paired it with a pair of slim fitting dark jeans, and black kitten heels. Then she selected a dark blue baby tee and pair of faded and frayed jeans for now, leaving her hair as it was and got ready to go down to breakfast.
Sirius had been awake for some time now. He had gone to sleep with music blasting last night, trying to block out the sounds of Hermione's laughter next door. He hated to admit it, but he was jealous of Harry and Ron. Whenever he saw them together, and especially when they were with Hermione, it reminded him of the old days. James, Lupin and Lilly, and the bond they had all shared strongly resembled the bond he had tried so hard not to witness last night. He got up, rumpling his hair, resigned to the fact that he would have to get used to it.
When Sirius entered the kitchen, everyone but Ron was already seated at the table and had started breakfast. He grabbed himself a bagel from the bunch on the counter (without magic this time, as he had left his wand upstairs) and sat down with the rest of the bunch. "So, Sirius- what do you think about Hermione's little bet?" asked a grinning Ginny, Dean's arm wrapped around her shoulders. "Think she'll go through with it?" "What bet? Go through with what?" He returned, munching his bagel and getting up for his coffee (damn it, everything was a pain in the ass without his wand). Making a mental note to not forget it next time, he returned to the table with his coffee.
"Oooo you haven't heard about it yet?" Judging by the raised eyebrow Sirius gave her, Ginny took this as a no and filled him in on the plans for that evening. Once Ginny was finished, she sat back with a smug smile on her face, obviously expecting something of a shocked reaction to follow. Instead, Sirius again raised his eyebrow, this time in the direction of Hermione. "So Hermione's new nature is finally revealed to the rest. I've been wondering how long it would take them to notice." His eyes twinkled mischeviously at Hermione, who looked down at the tiled kitchen floor, a slow blush creeping over her cheeks.
"Wait what do you mean by that? How did you already know?" Harry asked. Now they were all watching him intently, and Sirius realized he should have kept his mouth shut a little too late. To give him some time to think, he stuffed the remaining quarter of the bagel into his mouth and pointed to it apologetically. "Mmph fumff muph" He chewed slowly, and turned to Hermione.
The gaze of the group shifted to Hermione who was suddenly very interested in cleaning her plate entirely of the crumbs that remained from her bagel. Realizing she wasn't going to get away with this one, she shot Sirius a look that read thanks a lot for sticking me with this and gave it her best shot, trying to sound offhand about the whole thing.
"Well when I got here, I accidentally walked in on Sirius taking a nap, as he was the first one I bumped into we talked for a while after I had woken him up" She glanced around at the group, who still looked unsatisfied with this answer. "We talked about our summers, there was obviously a lot of important details that some people forgot to mention about his return , so he filled me in and I told him about my slightly rebellious summer."
She shrugged and got up for more orange juice, maintaining a cool facade, but was really concealing her trembling hands as she attempted to pour the juice, her back to the table. Luckily, at that moment Ron walked in, causing Dean to drop his arm from Ginny's shoulders and instead busy himself with finishing his breakfast. "Morning Ron" Ginny spoke up, after giving Dean a small flick to his shoulder for being such a wimp.
"Morning" Ron sat down and conjured himself a large breakfast. It was actually quite diverse, having at least one representative from every major food group. Now it was Harry's turn to lift an eyebrow as he watched Ron shovel in liberal amounts of food. It wasn't the amount of food that surprised him, just the fact that he had used a wand. Normally he would head straight for the fridge and begin to run up the grocery bill.
Hermione returned to the table laughing- with the rest- at Ron's meal. He looked up at them for a brief second and smiled sheepishly before returning to his plate. "Why the cold shoulder Ron?" asked Harry with a bit of a concealed grin on his face. Ron paused from the feeding and looked up "What do you mean? I said good morning when I came in" He looked slightly hurt at the implication.
"No not towards me, I meant the fridge! Don't you think it's feeling a little left out this morning what with the bit of wand work you used just now?" Harry replied, no longer concealing the grin that was spreading across not only his own face now. Dean and Sirius were both snorting into their coffee that they had so unwisely chosen to drink moments before.
For a moment Ron looked like he was having a bit of a struggle. Normally he would give Harry a good punch in the arm for a comment like that, but that would mean having to put down his forkmajor dilemma. In the end he shot everyone a glare and continued to eat. "Well why do you think we're having bagels this morning?" Laughed Ginny "It's because the amazing bottomless pit has eaten everything else in the fridge!"
Ginny and Hermione spent the rest of the day hanging around the house. Originally they had planned to join the rest of the boys in a quick game of quidditch, but due to the rainy weather they decided instead to stay behind and catch up on things. They couldn't have their hair frizz up when they were going out later that evening! Hermione was glad of the excuse since she had really wanted to talk to Ginny, not GinnyDean, ever since she had arrived. (A/N did anyone else immediately think of Jimmy Dean, the restaurant, after hearing this? Haha it was completely unintentional). This was the first time Dean had not been by her side, and they had actually had a hard time convincing him to go after Ron had loudly suggested making Dean the keeper, and then volunteering to be a beater. Dean didn't look to keen on the idea of Ron having access to a club with which to aim a lot of heavy bludgers at his head. However in the end, Ron, with some disappointment agreed to remain the keeper and Dean joined them, his face slowly regaining color.
Ginny shut the door and screeched with excitement. "Hermione! Come! Let's talk! I want to hear every thing you've been wanting to tell me and don't want the boys to know!" The went up to Hermione's room and sat on the bed, Hermione absentmindedly picking at a few imaginary stray stitches as she gathered the courage to tell Ginny what had happened...
Back out on the quidditch pitch, they had a successful game going, despite the heavy sheets of rain that had continued to fall. Dean's broom unexpectedly went haywire a few times before Sirius had the insight to confiscate Ron's wand, but other than that, the game passed without incident, each player making magnificent plays and trying their best to knock one another off their brooms in the process.
Back in the red and gold room, Hermione had just finished telling Ginny about the events the first night she had arrived. "And now I can't get it out of my head, but no one can know, not even Dean! Promise you won't tell?" Ginny nodded her head, both slightly amused and shocked at Hermione's brief but obvious change in attitude.
"I can't believe you kissed Sirius!" She shrieked, throwing a pillow at Hermione, who was now wearing a slightly proud smile. "So that was what Sirius meant at breakfast- I knew your answer was complete bull, even if everyone else ate it up. Have you talked to Sirius about it since?" Hermione shook her head no. "And I'm not going to! I know it happened, but I want to act like it hasn't. If Harry finds out about it..."
She had been looking directly at Ginny and noticed that when she had mentioned Harry's name, Ginny's face flushed a bit and she had looked away, just for a brief second. But that was all it took for Hermione's interest to take hold and her intuition to take over. "Wait a minute... have I missed something?" She questioned a now anxious looking Ginny.
"Wow, is this your outfit for tonight?" Ginny asked, picking up the red shirt that had been laid out on the bed and holding it up. "Ginny your face could pretty much blend in with the rest of that shirt right now, not to mention your ears. Stop trying to change the subject- you still haven't gotten over Harry have you?"
Ginny put the shirt down and continued to blush furiously. "Well... I thought I had, especially after I had found Dean... I DO like Dean, I really do!" She spoke vehemently. "But when I saw Harry the other day, when we got here, I don't know Hermione, I just... well he's really freaking hot for one thing." She grinned and continued "But I think its just an infatuation that I'll always have."
Hermione pursed her lips in thought. "Well maybe it's a little more than an infatuation, Ginny. But I promise your secret is safe with me. And speaking of Dean, I seem to have interrupted something the other night..." Her laughter was cut short by another pillow, this time to the face. Feathers filled the air as a full on pillow fight ensued.
The boys came back in, dripping wet and muddy. Oddly enough, Ron and Dean had seemed to have formed a strange sort of bond on the field. It was the type of bond that came only with repeated bludger attacks, and several 'accidental' plummets to the ground after failing to see the other as they flew through the air. Harry's opinion was that both of them had simply been beaten into acceptance of the other, but whatever it was he was relieved the tension between them was gone.
Ginny and Hermione came down the stairs, dressed to go out, and smirked at the soaking boys who were now dripping mud on their way to the kitchen. Ron reached the kitchen first, and was the first one in, as usual. However, Dean, Sirius and Harry had turned before entering the kitchen, in time to see both girls come down the stairs. All three mouths dropped open.
Dean was looking at Ginny, who was looking at Harry, who was looking at Hermione, who was doing her best to look at anything but Sirius, who was blatantly staring at her. Everyone stood there for a few seconds, an eternity to the nervous Hermione.
Then Ron's voice came from the kitchen "Oy! Isn't anyone else hungry? We have to eat and then go! I for one have been waiting all day to see Hermione step foot in somewhere that is not a residence, school or library and I'd like to get going."
The tension, that had gone unnoticed by Ron, broke immediately as everyone filed into the kitchen, Hermione giving Ron a smart smack on the back of his head as she passed him. "You just wait Ronald. I might have changed more than you expect." She could feel Sirius staring at her from a corner in the kitchen. "I'm not even sure you'll be able to handle it".