Here's the 2nd chapter everyone. I know the first chapter was confusing and I don't blame you, believe me I don't because the only one who is not confused by it is me because I'm the author ! But don't worry, everything will eventually fall into place as the story goes on. You will get to know who the new characters are and how important they are to Hermione. But just to clear away certain confusions for now:-
Ashley (f) – same age as Hermione; met in primary school (detalies coming up next chapter)
Kevin (m) – a year older than Hermione; met while on holiday (details coming up next chapter)
Joshua; always known strictly as JOSH! (m) – a year older than Hermione; met through Kevin (details coming up in the next few chapters)
Isabella; always strictly known as BELL! (f) – same age as Hermione; met through Ashley (detailes coming up in the next few chapters)
These four are Hermione's best friends outside Hogwarts that no one, apart from Ginny, knows of. So, if the confusion's gone now;on with the story…
Chapter 2 – Cherry The Owl
Hermione had about a week to settle in and calm down at home, after she came back from Hogwarts, before she left with her parents for a holiday in California. The reason they left so early for a holiday is because Hermione's parents were really busy during the holidays and this was the only time they could pull out to be together before they had to go back to their jobs and to meetings in other countries. Hermione was disappointed to hear this at first but then brightened up as she thought she could use this chance to get back with her other 4 best friends out of Hogwarts and spent time with them. She sent her owl Cherry (who she bought last year after her cat Crookshanks got quite taken to eat the letters that were given to him to deliver) to all her friends telling them about her plans. She told Cherry to first wait for 5 minutes for them to write a reply and if they don't have a reply by then or even start writing by then Hermione gave her permission to start pecking them till they had a reply ready.
Hermione still remembered that day when she went into the owl store to get a new owl and had found not one single owl that she completely liked by the end of an hours snooping around each bird cage. She had given up hope of finding a suitable owl and was going to buy an owl that looked like it should be more of Hagrid's owl than hers. It was then that she heard a loud piercing cry of an owl and saw a red colour from the end of her eye. When she turned to look she met the hazel eyes of a red owl that was being taunted by two kids that looked only about 6. She shooed away the little kids and was met with a thanks from the owl. Hermione smiled and said it was all right. That's right, you heard right people. Hermione can talk to owls. And not just owls but all other animals in the world apart from snakes. She could talk to animals ever since she could remember having the natural tattoo of the Iris. And she has had both since she was born, according to her parents anyway.
The owl said, "I was gona peck them really gud but just the mere taught of them being kids was what held me back! But I guess I shouldn't anymore seeing as how all of them r brats anyway." She snapped her beak twice with a noise to show her anger. But then as if just noticing Hermione over there she said in a cheeky tone, "But I guess I shouldn't worry anyway seeing as how ur gona buy me."
Hermione had decided that she was going to buy the bird the minute she laid eyes on her. The bird reminded her of Ginny and Ginny reminded her of Ron who reminded her of the whole Weasley family and Harry, while both Harry and Ron reminded her of Hogwarts. But she played along with the bird anyway. "Buy you! When did I ever say I'm going to buy you? I'm going to buy this strong owl over here." Hermione said feigning surprise and indicating the extremely large owl that she was holding.
"Oh, but u culdn't possibly leave me over here, all on my own to be picked on by 5 year old kids and poked to death! U look like a really smart, sensible and clever girl. U wouldn't leave a bird on its own to die in the hands of kids would u? An' what do u mean ur gona buy that troll ur holding! That's not muscle that u c over there that's FAT! Y I bet he can't even lift a letter properly to save his fat life! Y wuld u even want to spend all ur savings on him when u culd get sumone nice and useful lik me for a much more cheaper value that too!
Hermione could see that the owl was laying on the charm really thick and she wanted nothing more than to just burst out laughing after hearing all this. But she controlled herself and said, "Oh I don't know. This owl sure does feel heavy but I'm still guessing that's because of the muscle. And besides he could probably protect himself from danger more than you could." At this the red owl gave what was remarkably heard as the best snort heard from an owl as to of date. "I also have a cat you know. You wouldn't want to get hurt by him or worse get eaten by him do you? Actually when I look at it this way, your going to be more safe over here than with me." Hermione said in a finalising tone.
"U hav a CATt! Well now u just hav got to buy me. I luv cats! Well not romantically or as in a spending time with thing. I luv to hang around them when I'm the one making fun of them an' teasing them. And 'bout the protecting myself thing, y do I even need to protect myself? Especially when there's just a cat around me!" the owl said simply as if she's been working in the battle field till now and has just come home for vacation.
Hermione decided to put a little more wood in the fire. "Well you will probably need to protect yourself more than any other bird in this shop if I'm going to buy you. Because you see my name is Hermione Granger and I'm Harry Potter's best friend. So it wouldn't be just a simple cat that you would have to stay away from."
The owl's eyes were as big as saucepans now and her beak was hanging open. "U..ur..ur Hermione Granger? Harry Potter's best friend!" Hermione nodded and the bird gave an exited squeak at this. "Oh Hermione u hav no idea how tempting the idea of pecking this cage open and flying out at u sounds! Being ur pet is lik my dearest ambition and dream in life right now!"
Hearing this Hermione lost all self-control that she kept over her self since she started talking to the bird and burst out laughing. Passing by people started at her wondering if she had gone mad and if they had to call the shopkeeper. Hermione knew it was rude to burst out laughing at someone's face when they are saying something serious but she couldn't help it. She was laughing so hard that her stomach ached and tears were coming out of her eyes.
Seeing Hermione burst out laughing at the owls' statement surprised the owl a bit. "I no I'm funny but making someone laugh even without saying anything is pure talent u no." the owl said to the shaking figure lying on the ground.
Hermione was almost at the end of her laughing when she heard this comment coming. This just made her start all over again. She sat on the ground laughing her head off for about another 2 minutes and then got up slowly and composed herself. She had to take in great gulps of air first because of all the non-stop laughing. Hermione decided it was time to let her act down. "Well if its your 'dearest ambition and dream in life' I cant possibly destroy those two now can?" The owls brightened up at this. "I will buy you if you tell me what your name is." Hermione said smiling.
"I get to choose my name?" The owl asked in surprise. When she saw Hermione nod smiling, she said proudly, "Well then Hermione how does Cherry sound? That's what the people over here have been calling me."
"Cherry sounds fine. And please, call me Iris." Hermione said taking Cherry's cage and keeping the big owl's in that place instead.
"Y that's the perfect name anyone culd come up with for sumone as beautiful as u Her..i mean, Iris." Cherry said in an exited voice seeing as how Hermione was going to buy her.
Since that day onwards, even though Hermione has never told anyone before, Cherry was one of Hermione's best friends. She could talk to the bird about anything. It was like a friends at first sight thing, only in this case it was between a girl and a bird. She understood Hermione's feelings even without her having to say it out loud. Cherry was like Hermione's pet/guardian. Whenever she wasn't of delivering a letter somewhere, which is very rare, she is always around Hermione even if you wouldn't see her. They were like one body.
All her friends had been surprised when they saw Cherry, because sure they had seen red owls before but not owls that were as red as the Weaslys hair! Nor ones that would fool around with them and yet have a temper like a time bomb. They made sure not to test Cherry's patience unless they wanted a good pecking from her and that's saying something seeing as how she has the thickest and pointiest beak ever seen. And she wouldn't just get angry if you said something against her, oh no, she would get more than angry if you said something against Hermione as well. Which is why Malfoy found himself at the end of her beak more than once during the first few months of their 6th year. He had been pecked so many times that Hermione thought he would have a permanent scar by now. It took him that few months to get it through his thick head that he would only stop getting pecked once he shut his big mouth up. Even though it hasn't stopped him from being a pest and a pain in the ass, he did stay away from them to save himself from being brainless. He even stopped whispering or mouthing stuff and showing signs once he realised that nothing goes under the eyes of Cherry. She was even with Hermione during the lessons! The whole school, including the teachers, was surprised of this behaviour from an owl at first, but they got used to it at the end. The teachers were the ones that cooled down the fastest. The rest of the student's board loved Cherry, the girls gushed over her, as long as they were not on her target list. Cherry had hit it off really well with both Ginny and Ashley and had become really good friends just like Hermione had with the two of them. Even though Ginny didn't know how to talk to Cherry at first she learned it afterwards with the help of Hermione. Ashley was not a problem since she has had an owl for 6 years and was taught the language, along with other languages, ages ago by Hermione. So now Ginny along with Hermione and Ashley could talk to owls and the birds related to it, as long as there was some kind of similarities in the language.
Cherry gets really impatient waiting for people to write a reply when Hermione expects one and always asks Hermione's permission to peck them if they get too late, which is often since almost all of her friends are too lazy to write a reply back or would be too busy, which is very rare. She always gets Hermione's permission before she leaves for delivery. Which is what she got when she went to deliver 4 letters to Hermione's 4 best friends outside Hogwarts. Ashley, Kevin, Josh and Bell. Hermione gave Cherry a special permission to peck Josh extra hard because she knew he would either be too busy putting his tongue down girls throat or would be too lazy watching T.V or sleeping or something equally boring for him that he wouldn't bother replying and would only forget about it later. She was sure Kevin would forget too being soo busy planning to or pranking people or out clubbing and catching girls. Well looks like someone else might be getting some pecks too. She was sure no matter how ever busy the girls are they would be able to hand a reply in less than 5 minutes. Well, Bell might make it to almost 5 mins but Hermione was sure she could trust Ashley to give in the fastest reply. Being just a few hours away from her has its advantages. Sure enough when all the replies came in Josh had the angriest one, followed by Kevin. As predicted the girls gave in replies in less than 5 mins. Apparently Josh was 'having fun' with someone and Kevin was in middle of his 'greatest' prank ever and both of them would never forgive her for disturbing them! Well in that case she was glad she disturbed them! The girls were doing sensible stuff like: Bell was sitting in her room and watching T.V, the reason being her trying to cook and blowing up the whole kitchen with sticky slimy stuff (Bell cant cook to save her life, no wonder she's bad at potions!), where as Ashley, being the much more sensible one, was reading a book and eating at the same time. Shows how matured her friends are but, hey, they're still her friends and she loves them all the same. Well not the same, but you get what I mean...don't you?
Since that's over with…REVIEW people! Write what you want, ask what you want. I'l try my best to clear all confusions without giving away too much off the coming story. Hermione's remembering everything that happened till now: basically how she met her friends and what she really is like with them. And this is going to go on for a few more chapters. You will know who her friends are from the time she met them.
I'm guessing you know by now that Hermione is Iris (try connecting this to the beginning of the 1st chapter ;-) ). You might also be wondering why I wrote a whole chapter on an owl. Well that's because that's no ordinary owl;you'll find out later. So, REVIEW !