In Her Eyes
Madammarauder
Ch4: Gift Swapping
Previous:
"Wow," Mrs. Weasley said, holding one of the letters in her hand, "This one's heavy. And it's . . . Hermione's." She said, tossing her the letter. Hermione instantly knew why her letter was so heavy. She frantically ripped open the letter, and poured out its contents. With a loud THUD a shinny badge lay in front of her on the table. She picked it up quickly and read the inscription on the front. It read, HOGWARTS HEAD GIRL! Hermione was ecstatic,
"Where to next?" Ron asked. Ron and Hermione were walking down the streets of Diagon Alley, buying new school supplies for themselves, and Harry, who had asked them to, because the Dursley's wouldn't let him leave the house. ( Still not knowing that Harry had snuck out the day before.)
" Well, we've already gotten all of our books, and Harry's. So, I think we should just keep walking around for a few minutes." Hermione suggested, setting down the bags of books, quills, and parchment next to her.
Ron shrugged, and also set down his bags. " Wait. I have a better idea. How 'bout we go and buy each other gifts? Just to preoccupy us."
" Sounds good." Hermione stated, " But, it can't cost any more than ten galleons."
" Okay," Ron grinned, looking at his watch, "I'll meet you back here, " Ron said, pointing at the bench in front of Honeydukes, " at eleven thirty."
" Okay, " Hermione exclaimed," see you then!" With that, she picked up her bags, turned around, and disappeared into the bustling crowd, leaving Ron behind.
Ron smiled. He loved spending time with Hermione. Whenever he did, it was like nothing else mattered. He wouldn't rather be anywhere else.
Suddenly, he finally came back to reality. He looked down at his watch, " Bloody hell." He said angrily, realizing that he only had thirty minutes to find Hermione a cheap, but decent gift. Not a moment later, Ron was running through the crowd, looking for the one store that he knew Hermione would love.
Hermione, unlike Ron, walked calmly past stores, silently vetoing most stores of which she wouldn't be able to find Ron's gift. Ron was interested in several things. There wasn't anything Ron disliked. Well, maybe spiders, Potions, books, and pretty much anything that required him to do mind work. So, looking for a gift for Ron was quite a difficult task.
" Darla's Dress Robes." Hermione read on a sign over, ( you guessed it ) a fancy dress robe store. " No. " Hermione thought to herself, "Too pricey." She kept walking down the roads of Diagon Alley, looking through te windows for anything that caught her eye of which Ron would like.
" Merlin's Markings." Hermione read over a dark, creepy store that just shrieked DANGER. Hermione instantly rejected, not wanting to even step foot in that shop. So, she kept on walking.
" Nick's Knickknacks." Hermione read with a grin, " Perfect!"
When she opened the door, the bell above it rang furiously. Without a doubt the bell was able to let someone in the back of the store know that someone had entered. Hermione looked around the store. There were shelves, and shelves filled with random objects. Such as dungbombs, laughing lozenges, farting fritters, etc. But, Hermione was distracted when a chubby, jolly little man came waddling out of a closet in the back of the store. Carrying, what seemed to be, a box of ( you guessed it) Knickknacks.
" Well, hello." He said cheerfully, " My name is Nick Knickerbocker, owner of this here store. He said proudly, " Is there anything that I could help you find?" He asked Hermione, walking behind the counter at the front of the store, he placed the box down.
" Oh, I am just looking for a gift for a friend." Hermione said kindly, looking at the man. " But, thank you anyway."
" No problem." The man said as he started to rummage through the box.
Hermione turned her back on the man, and started to walk along the aisles of shelves. When, finally, one caught her attention. It was labeled COMMUNICATION DEVICES, in big, bold letters. She decided to look through it.
Her eyes skimmed over the gadgets. There were many different shapes and sized of devices. But, there were three, slender, red devices that really caught her attention. The label underneath the objects said that they were called QUIET QUILLS. Beside of the label was a brief description of what the object did. It said,
This object is one of the most worldly-wide sold. Whenever one uses the quill, their message will appear on the other quill's owner's parchment. But, when a person who doesn't own one of these three quills tries to read the note, it will automatically erase the message. It is extremely handy to use during lessons when you are too bored to listen to the professor, and you want to talk to your buddies.
Hermione grinned at the summary. She somehow knew that the nice, elderly owner of the store had written the description. Hermione picked up the three quills, and examined them. Then, she noticed the price tag dangling from the tip of one of them. They were seven galleons.
" Perfect" Hermione thought to herself, " I'll have just enough money to bye Ron something at Honeydukes." Hermione looked at the clock above the entrance of the store. She gasped. She only had ten minutes to get to Honeydukes, find something for Ron ( Which wouldn't be that hard, considering that he loved every type of sweet,) and get back to the bench. With that, she grabbed the pens, purchased her items, and rushed out of the store, briefly thanking the owner for his kindness.
Ron rushed past stores, looking through the windows as he passed them to see if there was anything that Hermione might like. He rushed past a lingerie store, and then stopped in his tracks. He then backed up to look at the display. Remembering that he only had a little bit of time to get Hermione a gift, he kept marching down the streets.
The next store he passed, he desperately wanted to go into, Quidditch Extravaganza . But, he knew that Hermione wasn't too interested in Quidditch. Meaning that she probably wouldn't want anything to do with Quidditch. Stubbornly, he moved on. The next store he stopped at he knew that if he couldn't find something in there that Hermione wouldn't like in it, then he wasn't looking hard enough. The store was called Bizarre Books.
He walked inside to find what he expected. A quiet, stuffy, and humid room full of books. This store greatly reminded him of Hogwarts school library. Behind the counter was a petite, stern looking old woman. She was wearing a very plain dress, her white/gray hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and she had a pair of glasses sitting on the brim of her nose.
" Can I help you?" She asked grouchily, looking up from her book at Ron.
" No ma'am." Ron said nervously with a gulp.
" Good." She stated, looking back down at her book.
" Okay." Ron whispered, only loud enough so that he could hear it. He then turned his back on the woman, and looked at the titles of the many bookshelves in the semi-sized room. He knew that Hermione,(crazily,) loved every subject at Hogwarts. All except for Potions and Divination. Then, the bookshelf labeled, MAGIC HISTORY, caught his attention. He brushed his finger across the leather spines of the old books. When he saw one in particular that caught his eye. The book was easily the oldest on the whole bookshelf, and easily one of the oldest in the whole library. Its pages were yellowing in time, and its spine was worn out at too about the point to where it was about to fall apart. But, through the rips and tares, he could scarcely read the title of the book, Magic From the Beginning. Ron pulled out the book, careful not to damage it. He carefully opened the book and skimmed the first few lines. Automatically, he knew that Hermione would love the book because of all of the information that it held about Magic's past.
" Perfect!" Ron whispered enthusiastically, looking at the price of the book, it was only nine galleons. Apprehensively, Ron walked to the counter to pay for the book. Without looking up at Ron, she took the book off of the counter-top. While she rang up the price, Ron looked beside the counter to a table with beautiful, handmade bookmarks spread out on top. Ron walked over to the table, and examined the bookmarks. There was one that caught his attention. It was a woven with golden thread, and it had silver tassels running from the end. Ron looked at the price that was dangling from it. It was two galleons. Ron, without pondering for another moment, grabbed the bookmark, and placed it on the counter as well. Once again, the lady took it without looking up at Ron. Once she was finished ringing up the book and the bookmark, she placed it into a large, paper bag.
" That will be eleven galleons." She said, thrusting her palm in front of Ron's face.
" Here." Ron said stubbornly, putting the galleons in her hand, a little aggressively. Then he grabbed his bag and turned to the door, " Have a nice day." He said rudely, walking out of the store. Ron was quite happy with his purchase. And he hoped that Hermione would like it. She didn't need to know that he barely spent over the limit of ten galleons.
" Hey! Ron, over here!" Hermione said, waving her arms at Ron. Ron spotted her and grinned, waving back to her. Ron then dodged all of the pedestrians trying to push past him. Ron felt like a fish flowing upstream.
" Here you go." Hermione said, placing the bag of gifts in Ron's lap, who had taken his sea t right next to her. Ron opened the bag, and tipped it over, the quills and chocolate frogs that Hermione had also gotten for him falling out.
" It's . . . great." Ron said both amused and confused, picking up the quills, " What are they?" He asked, turning the quills over and over, expecting to see a label.
" Well." Hermione said cheerfully, " these quills are for us to communicate. When you write on a piece of parchment with the quills, the message will appear on the other quill's owner's parchment." Hermione said excitedly, " And the best part is, is that when someone who doesn't own one of these quills tries to read the message, the note immediately disappears." She said, taking a quill for herself.
" That's awesome!" Ron said, looking at the quill, now, as if it were made of gold, " Here you go." He said, giving Hermione a quill. " I'm guessing the other quill is for Harry?" He asked looking at the second quill in his hands.
" Yep." Hermione said, putting her own quill in her bag.
" Okay, " Ron said, placing the bag in Hermione's lap, " And this is for you."
Hermione gasped, " Geez, do you have a dead body in here or something?" She asked, surprised by the weight of the bag. Ron shook his head, " Nope."
Hermione opened the bag, and carefully pulled out the book. " Wow." She said, staring at the book in awe, " This is awesome!" She said, opening the book, and skimming the first few lines.
" Oh, wait." Ron said, pointing at the bag, " There's one more thing."
Hermione looked in the bag, and her eyes widened when she saw the book mark, " It's beautiful!" Hermione said, holding the bookmark as Ron had with the quills.
" Thanks, Ron." She said, giving Ron a hug.
" No problem." He replied, returning the hug, " And thanks for the quills." He said, letting go of Hermione, " And the chocolate frogs!" He added, remembering the candy.
" No problem." Hermione replied with a grin. " Well, I guess we'd better be getting back to the burrow. We will want to get plenty of rest, considering we are going back to school tomorrow." She said, standing up. Ron grabbed all of his bags and stood up too.
" Yeah, I am so excited. This is going to be our last first day at Hogwarts." Ron said with a sigh.
" Yeah, I know." Hermione said, grabbing her bags, " I really am going to miss Hogwarts." She said. Then, Hermione and Ron made their way back to the burrow after a fun day of shopping.
A/n: See, I told you this chapter would be longer. Okay, do i have to get on my hands and knees to BEG you to review? HUH?