Strictly Professional
By Cabbage Rose
Author's Notes: Hi! I finally found time to update this story! There are two excellent things that happened today (9/29): 1. This was the last day of school before fall break! What does this mean? I finally get enough time to update! Yay. But the bad thing is that I probably won't because of that writer's block I have so often. But don't give up on me yet! 2. It's my birthday! I'm thirteen today! Heh, heh. (edges away slowly)
Disclaimer: I don't own Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, or that other guy with the scar on his forehead. :)
Ch. 5
"Blast ended screwts, Hermione! On the first bloody day!" That was the first thing that came out of Ron's mouth when he met Hermione for lunch in the Great Hall. Ron was sitting opposite of Hermione and Neville, and thankfully well away from Lavender this time at the table.
"What are you babbling on about?" Hermione asked with an amused look on her face.
"Hagrid! He has gone crazy. I thought he was bonkers when he made us do that when we were in our fourth year, but now he is making first years study them too!"
Hermione got slightly alarmed at this news. "Well they aren't getting hurt, are they? Hagrid isn't doing anything that will get him fired, right?"
"Well a third year got a slight burn," Hermione's eyes widened, "But she was sent to the hospital wing and is fine now. Luckily that is all that happened, and I do not doubt that more will...I don't want Hagrid getting fired over this. I know he loves the more dangerous types of animals, but this is ridiculous!"
"I agree...You should try talking Hagrid out of it. Make him do something safer...At his old age he shouldn't be handling those types of creatures anyway."
Ron gave a sad sigh before saying, "I'll try, but you know how he is. We tried talking him out of things like this before, and it was hopeless-"
"Well we will just have to try harder. You are his assistant, so he should listen to you. I don't want first years getting hurt or Hagrid getting fired over this!" Hermione interrupted fiercely.
"Ok, Hermione, I'll try." Ron said.
Hermione gave him a contented smile before starting on her salad. He started on his food as well. They ate in comfortable silence for a while, but then Ron heard a buzzing coming from Hermione. He looked up from his food and started staring at her. She did not notice. "Hermione?"
She chewed and swallowed a bite of her salad before saying, "Yes?"
"Why are you buzzing?" Wow, that sounded stupid.
Hermione looked at him like he was mental. "Are you feeling alright, Ron?"
"No, you are buzzing." Ron pointed at her waist, "And it sounds like it is coming from there."
Hermione looked down at her waist and checked her pockets. She found the paper from George that Ron had given her later. "Ah ha!" Hermione said triumphantly, "This must have been it." The paper started vibrating and shaking in her hand.
"That must be telling you to open it, like George wants to talk to you." Ron presumed. Hermione conjured up a quill and opened up the paper, writing, 'George? Is that you?'
'Who else would it be, Ron? I'm the one that gave it to you, you idiot.'
Hermione chuckled before writing, 'No, it is Hermione. Hermione Granger, remember?'
'Oh Hermione! How could us Weasley's forget you? It was almost like you were part of the family, with how much you stayed with us and how much Ron talked about you.' Ron groaned while Hermione laughed at this news. It was true: In his later years he talked about Hermione often when she wasn't there, when he wasn't talking about Harry or the Chuddly Cannons. 'How are you? Have you hooked up with Ron like Mum thought you two would?' Ron all of the sudden had a very great desire to strangle George.
'I am very good. Thank you for asking. And as for Ron and I 'hooking up' as you put it, of course not! We are good friends and nothing more. Plus, there is a rule at Hogwarts about teachers having romantic relationships with each other.' Ron felt a bit hot when he read this. But it was stupid and she was right! Why was he getting all weird all of the sudden?
'Well that won't last for long. No woman, even as prestigious as you Hermione, can resist the Weasley charm. No rules can stop it; it is simply in our blood...but, of course, Fred and I always had a suspicion that he was adopted, so he may not have it.'
Hermione rolled her eyes. 'George, I was never affected by this charm of which you speak of.'
George wrote back quickly, 'What are you talking about, Hermione! Everyone knew you had the hots for our little Ronniekins!'
Hermione blushed lightly, writing, 'I have no idea what you are talking about, George...now is there a reason for you contacting me or not?'
'Wow. Weren't you in a hurry to change the subject?' Hermione's eyes narrowed at the parchment. 'But, yes, there was. I was wondering when the next time you and Ronnie could go to Hogsmeade. Maybe we could meet up and talk.'
Ron didn't know when the next time when they went to Hogsmeade was, but Hermione did. 'In 3 weeks, George. Sure, it would be lovely seeing you and Fred again.'
'Great! Let's meet up at Three Broomsticks then? Around 3?'
'Sure, George. We will see you then. Good bye.' Hermione neatly folded up the parchment and put it back into her robes pocket. Then she turned to Ron. "So, what was that about?"
"What do you mean?" He asked, his mouth full of pasta. He had started eating again.
"Goodness, Ron, please eat like the adult you are!" Hermione said, shielding her eyes. Once Ron had swallowed, Hermione said, "Thank you. Now why is George all interested in meeting up with us?"
"Well Hermione, you were away for ten years!" Ron said, thinking that it was obvious. Well, it was.
Hermione looked puzzled. "I suppose that could be it...but we weren't exactly friends. In fact, they took pleasure in leaving snakes in my bed when I was with you in the Burrow." Hermione frowned at the memories.
Ron also remembered. It was hilarious, to be honest, but he didn't say anything. "Well we will have to wait and see. Fred and George usually have a reason for everything."
As Hermione nodded, the plates were once again taken away. This announced that it was time to go back to work, to both students and teachers. "Oh shite! I didn't hardly eat anything...again!" Ron cursed, rubbing his aching stomach.
Hermione said, "What do you mean? You had two courses!"
They made their way out of the Great Hall and into the hallway. Ron looked at her as though she didn't know a thing. "I always eat at least eight!"
"Oh yes. How could I forget how much you ate?" Hermione asked herself, her nose wrinkling with distaste.
Ron laughed, despite his rumbling stomach, but then scowled. "Well...we have to get back to work."
"You act as though that is a bad thing!" Hermione said. Apparently she was just as excited about teaching as she was learning.
Ron just groaned as they parted, Ron going outside and Hermione up the stairway.
------
Ron dragged himself up the stairway, aching. He wasn't lucky enough to leave his job that day without getting the wrath of the blast-ended screwts. His good t-shirt was torn in multiple places, blood stains making the light blue shirt a pink color. He had multiple scratches on his face, which resulted from saving a first year that was yanking on one of the screwt's tails. One was above his ear, another below his chin, and one right on his lip, which made it hard to speak. He also had burns on his sides, from when he was talking to a third year about the proper technique to feed a screwt, when another one snuck up behind him and burned him. Ron had a feeling that the blasted thing did it on purpose, for afterward it gave a loud screech that sounded familiar to howling laughter. And if this wasn't horrible enough, there was more. He had to teach Cinnamon, the student from Hell, for an hour and a half. She did her best to interrupt and made him do things over again, such as how to hold a screwt and walk one, just in hopes of him getting hurt or humiliating himself. He had to sadly admit that she probably succeeded in that.
Ron eventually found himself in front of the teacher's wing, so he muttered the password (doing his best not to move his lips), and limped into the main room. The room was the most oddly decorated out of all the livings rooms, and yet still remained stylish. There were four main colors for the rooms, each representing a house. Ron sat himself in the red and gold squishy armchair next to the window, and relaxed. His muscles thanked him as he let out of a sigh of relief, sinking into the comfortable chair.
Ron stared out the window, which had a spectacular view of the huge lake on the outskirts of Hogwarts. Down below he could see a large bump in the middle of the lake, that Ron was sure was the giant squid that inhabited it. The sun was setting, an array of pinks and oranges dancing in the sky and reflecting on the lake. It was beautiful and it seemed to be only for him; no one else was in the room. He felt touched to be able to see such a sight. He was so entranced that he, once again, did not noticed Dotty, who was pecking at the window.
After a few minutes, Dotty let out an angry screech, which made Ron jump. He opened the window and let Dotty in. The large bird flew in and sat on his head, making her a nest in his blazing hair. "Dotty." Ron scolded. Dotty cocked her head and hooted smugly, not leaving from her nest. Ron scowled and thrust open the envelope that was dropped from his owl when she flew in before. It read,
'Hi Ron...And Hermione, if you are there,
So Ron? How long did you keep Hermione to yourself? I mean, I am sure you want her for yourself only, but other people, such as Harry, and me love her too! Merlin, how rude can you be?
Well anyway, I am sure that Hermione was worried that I was mad. I mean, of course she was. That is how Hermione is. Well you can tell her that I am fine with her being back. Fine? I mean great! I can't wait to speak with her again. I don't know about how Harry feels, but I am sure that he will be elated to know she is ok too. Sorry to make this short, but I have to go. Have a ton of papers to file...Ugh; this is never going to get done. Well anyway, I hope I get to see you guys soon. I bet Harry feels the same way. Ok, toodles (lol).
With tons of love, Ginny'
Ron didn't know what Ginny was talking about. He had known Hermione was there for a day, or two. It wasn't like he knew all along and it was all big secret. Ginny always had to have some drama going on, he figured, as he untangled Dotty's talons from his hair. He gave the bird an owl treat before hastilly tying on a responce and throwing the bird out of the window (talk about a love/hate relationship, lol).
Despite the fact that it was rather early, Ron dragged himself into his bed. As he gradually drifted into sleep, he found himself agreeing with Ginny. He couldn't wait to see everyone together as well...Little did he know he was going to see one of the group sooner than he thought.
Author's Note: Ha. Another cliffie...or is it? I dunno depends on how you look at it...I am too damn confusing for my own good. Lol. Well anyway, I apologize profusely for not updating sooner. I found myself very busy, and also had major writer's block for this (as well as others) story. I guess that is what you get when you don't have an organizer. Crap, my L.A teacher would kill me if she knew that I didn't use that...T.T. Here's another thing she would hate: I didn't really look up some of the spelling in this one. So if I spelled something wrong, such as screwt, please let me know!
Anyway, here is the permanent parchment writing. Ron-bold. Hermione-italic. George/other people-underline. Hopefully no more confusion about that. Anyway, next chapter, who is going to show up? And is this a good or bad thing? Read and find out. And as always, please review!