Chapter 3: The Owl
"Harry can you come and…oomph!" was all that Hermione got out until she ungracefully tumbled to the floor under the weight of two rather large boxes of books. Harry rushed over to her and grabbed the first box off of her as she sat up and pushed off the second.
"You alright?" He asked with genuine concern etched all over his face. She nodded and motioned for him to get up. He stood up, and she followed suit, brushing dirt off of her shirt and straightening out her clothes.
Ron chose that moment to come through the door with another two boxes and seeing the books scattered all over the floor, he asked "What the blazes happened here?"
"A little run in with the books, nothing serious," she answered very nonchalant. She started to pick up the stray books that had been released from their cardboard confinements, while Ron set down his heavy load and went to help her collect the remaining tomes that had escaped her sight.
"Told you that books were evil," Ron said with a grin.
"Ronald! They are not!" Just to settle the argument, she chose that moment to push him, and with his unsteady stance, crouched down on the balls of his feet, it was just enough that he went toppling over onto his back, scattering the books once more. From his spot on the floor, he looked up at the third person in the room, his so called best friend, and met a grin.
"I think you might have deserved that, Ron." Harry said with a laugh.
"Bloody git…"Ron trailed off, before being swatted by Hermione and once again told to watch his language.
"Merlin, woman!" he said jokingly as he stood up, "you're going to beat me to death!"
"And you will have brought it on yourself. Now, I want to get moved into this flat before nightfall, and at this pace, we'll be lucky to get half of it in here by then. Let's hurry it up, boys!" And with that, Hermione bounded out the door to the waiting muggle truck she had rented to transport all of her belongings from her parents house to her newly rented flat. It was very small, solely for the purpose of a getaway from Hogwarts. She would be living in the school during the year, but she wanted somewhere to go in the summers other than her parents' house. When she had seen the low rent for the fairly new and attractive flat she had jumped at the opportunity. It wasn't much, but it fit her perfectly.
As Hermione was tugging at a fairly stubborn box on the top of a stack, she was suddenly struck with the feeling of being watched. She abandoned the box and turned around slowly to be met with golden eyes surrounded by a smoky grey. It was an owl, but just not an owl, a very beautiful owl whose feathers shone and almost seemed to sparkle in the sunlight pouring into the back of the truck. She grabbed for the letter attached to the leg of the owl, but it hooted menacingly and pecked at her hand. She pulled back abruptly and cradled her hand in her other arm as she stared into the mysterious eyes of the owl before her. At this moment, Ron and Harry made an appearance, but were surprised to see Hermione in a stare down with a rather large smoky-colored owl.
"Hermione, what are you doing? Asked Harry as he hopped up into the truck and walked towards the bird. He noticed Hermione's now bleeding hand and made the connection. He also reached for the letter, and was also met with the same attack that she had been. "Well mate, I guess it's for you," said Harry as he stepped back to give the red head access, "have fun!"
Ron slowly came forward and reached for the letter. He was thankful to not be pecked at, but grew anxious as he saw who the letter was from.
"What is it, Ron?" asked Hermione as she came forward and took the unopened letter from his lose grip. "Ohh…" she trailed off as the official seal of the Department of Mysteries shone up at her. She held it out to Ron, and he took it silently, a mixed look of horror, excitement, and dread on his face. He stepped of the end of the truck and sat down on the edge. Hermione and Harry stood behind him, hoping and praying that he would get in. His whole future was hanging on this moment. Ron's trembling hand hovered above the seal before he finally muttered "Bloody Hell…" and broke it. He slowly pulled out the official looking sheet of parchment and unfolded it. He leaned over and read, obscuring the view for Harry and Hermione. They then saw his shoulders rise and fall in defeat…or so they thought. Just as Hermione was reaching out to console her best friend, she was met with a yell.
"I GOT IT!" Ron yelled as he jumped up and threw a fist into the air. Harry gave a huge "WHOOP!" as Hermione, recovered from her scare, jumped off the end of the truck onto the celebrating red head below. She wrapped her arms around him and said "I knew you would get it! I just knew it!" She hugged him then looked up into his smiling face as he picked her up and swung her around. She laughed melodiously as he put her down on the ground. Harry jumped off the truck to grab Ron into a one-armed brotherly hug before offering his congratulations.
"We've got to celebrate! Owl your mum, we're going to have a small party tonight!" said an excited Hermione.
"Here?" asked Harry. "Is it big enough for everybody?"
"Well, we've got the three of us, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ginny. I think we can all fit, my flat's not that small!"
"I'll go owl the family. I'll be right back," said Ron, clearly in shock. As he walked away, Hermione and Harry continued with the unpacking. After all, they had a party to throw that night.