Chapter Eighteen: Honest Mistake

Harry sat there, having no idea what to do, Ron seemed overwhelmingly angry, Ginny had followed Ron to talk and he was left there with Hermione. Twiddling his thumbs and feeling like he had just destroyed something dear to him. Hermione was leaning back in her seat, staring the ceiling, shaking her head and feeling so confused, she had no idea Harry had felt that way about. There were no hints to that in all of the years she had known. She tried to think of a time when it could have been seen by her, but she couldn't find it, nowhere, why didn't he ever show any signs she wondered. She just couldn't understand it or him for that matter.

Out of nowhere, they heard a crashing noise and what sounded like a scream, to them this uncomfortable silence was finally over as they both ran towards where the sound had come from. They ran down the stairs and were halted abruptly by a surprising sight... A woman who looked about their age, if not older, was covered in a number of different sized luggage bags, she had long deep red hair and pale skin. Soon after they saw her another woman about the other woman's age as well came running up the stairs, huffing heavily, her long purplish black hair fell into her face as she fell to her knees beginning to pry the luggage off the other.

"Oh my god, Jeanne, are you alright?" The woman with the dark hair said.

"I guess... You should have just taken some of your luggage up, Rae!" The red-head, Jeanne stated with a hint of anger.

"Umm, are you ladies all set?" Harry asked quietly.

"Oh, sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves..." The one covered in luggage stood up, putting out her hand,"My name is Jeanne Forsythe, I'm George's girlfriend!"

"And I'm Raven Logan, I was Fred's girlfriend, now we're just buddies," Raven smiled, displaying her hand, not recognizing Hermione,"And you must be Harry Potter?"

Hermione blinked for a moment, was that the Raven who went to Hogwarts with them? Was that the Raven who used to hang out with Draco and cronies? She watched the woman a moment, now recognizing her as that girl. She smiled and began to introduce herself to the ladies, as Harry shook their hands,"I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger, nice to meet you both!"

"Ah, Professor Granger!" Jeanne smiled and took her hand. "Vaughn and Verity have discussed a bunch about you!"

"Professor Tuscany is quite the gentleman and Professor Dejean is very wonderful person to chat with." Hermione smiled back, shaking her hand.

"Professor Dejean?" Harry questioned curiously.

"When Professor Flitwick retired, Verity took up teaching Charms, she worked with the twins at their shop during our sixth year, remember?" Hermione gave Harry a look saying he should have remember that.

"Why don't we get their things to the third floor, and then head to the living room for some Butterbeer and chit-chat." Harry said with a great smile as he grabbed some luggage.

All four of them brought all of the luggage to the storage room on the third floor. After all of the luggage was set and prepared, they dusted their hands and heaved sighs of relief in sync with one another, then they smiled. They all began down the stairs, heading to the living room to talk and drink some Butterbeer, until the twins came home from work. It was always nice to see people you haven't seen in years, Harry thought to himself as they hit the first floor. Hermione led the girls into the living and Harry went to the kitchen to grabs the mugs and the drinks. He returned to the room, pouring everyone a mug of Butterbeer, he then took his normal seat by the fireplace.

SNAP! CRACK! CRACK! SNAP!

A second later three wizards and a witch appeared in the living room, it was Fred, George, Vaughn and Verity. All of them were returning from work, though it was odd that Verity and Vaughn were here, Hermione thought. The smiled and snapped their fingers, mugs appeared and filled with the Butterbeer before them.

"Going ta start a party without us, Hermione?" Vaughn asked with a grin. "I heard from Fred that Raven and Jeanne would be here for the week."

"Silly people, starting parties without the Weasley twins." George smiled, thrusting his mug into the air.