A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, I went to Las Vegas with my sister and her husband last week and it takes me about a week to write a chapter…Thanks for all your advice, I'm still not certain if I'll take an action turn or not yet, but if I do, it wouldn't really involve death eaters, it would more involve someone from Hermione's past, wink wink. Original Mercedes Benz, oh yes, Samantha will get hers soon enough, MUWAHAHAHA!
SORRY if I didn't answer or comment on what most of y'all said, I just had time to quickly look over my lovely reviews again before I posted this, I really wanted to get it out as soon as I could!
Special Thanks- To all of you who have read this story and gone on to read some of my other, may I say, crappier stories, I really appreciate it! I think my writing has improved and I'm sure those of you that have tried to read my other stories will agree. Thanks for reading my other stories, it makes me happy!!
Chapter 12
Shortly after their discussion, Hermione and Ron headed back up to there separate rooms to sleep. Morning came quickly and with it came Hermione's family.
CRUNCH! Hermione's eyes burst open with full awareness as a searing pain came from her hand. She looked up, only to find Samantha standing above her.
"I'm terribly sorry, was that you hand?" Samantha asked mockingly, finally taking her foot, which happened to have a shoe on it (she was only wearing one shoe), off of her crushed hand.
Hermione glared angrily up at her cousin and moved to stand up quickly, only to feel her hair get jerked, causing her to swiftly lay her head back down. Samantha's other, bare foot, was standing on a large amount of Hermione's curly hair.
"Samantha," Hermione growled, "I'm not in the mood to deal with you today, so if you'd kindly get your dirty foot off of my hair, I'd very much appreciate it."
"I want to know how you spilled that milkshake all over me last night with out even touching it." Samantha said resolutely. Hermione shook with anger.
"Get… off… my… hair…" Hermione said slowly, battling with herself to control her rage, she couldn't afford to accidentally use magic again; it could cost her, her diploma.
"I'll get off when you tell me how you did it."
"I didn't do anything!" Hermione practically yelled. Samantha glared disbelievingly down at her and slowly she raised her shoed foot into the air only to bring it forcefully down once more on top of Hermione's hand. Hermione inhaled deeply at the shock and pain of the impact. It felt like Samantha was crushing every bone in her hand.
Forcefully Hermione pushed Samantha's knee with her other hand and all the strength she could muster. Surprised by the retaliation and the pressure Hermione had applied to the joint in the direction it wasn't supposed to bend, Samantha stumbled backwards a couple of steps and Hermione leapt to her feet as soon as she was free to do so.
"I absolutely hate you Samantha Granger and if you don't stay away from me from now on, you're going to regret it." Hermione seethed and without another word she stormed out of the room and into the study, slamming the door hard behind her as she entered. Both boys awoke with a jerk.
"Hermione…wha…?" Ron said. Both boys still had a hazy half asleep look about them. It only took Ron a second to shake himself awake though as he saw how enraged Hermione was and he jumped unhesitant to his feet, shortly followed by Harry. "What's wrong? What happened?" Ron asked some what panicked.
"I swear that girl is a certified Slytherin, muggle or not." Hermione fumed, clenching her fists and wincing as she did so. Noticing this, Ron's eyes darted over her, checking for any signs of injury, when his eyes stopped on her now heavily bruised right hand, he took it gently into his own.
"Hermione, what happened?" Ron asked softly, gazing into her eyes. Hermione's breath stopped in her chest as Ron took her hand and for some reason she couldn't stop her face from heating up. Harry curiously looked between the two before stepping in.
"Um, yeah, what happened, did Samantha do that?" he asked.
"Of course she did, she crushed it with her foot while I was sleeping the coward." Hermione said.
"That's it." Ron said, slowly letting go of Hermione's hand. "Girl or no girl, nobody hurts one my best friends and gets away with it." With that Ron charged towards the door, only to have Harry and Hermione grab an arm each in restraint.
"No Ron, she isn't worth it. Please don't do this." Hermione pleaded.
"She's right Ron; it'll only end up causing trouble for you." Harry added.
"Fine! Fine…" Ron said, turning around and pulling his arms away from his friends. "But she would deserve everything she got."
"No arguing with that mate." Harry agreed with a smile as the three of them sat on blankets now scattering the floor.
"We've got to do something about your hand though Hermione, it's probably broken, can your parents heal it?" Ron asked, looking at her hand sorrowfully.
"Muggles can't do things like that; our healing processes take weeks if not months. I'll just have mum wrap it up until school starts, and then I can have someone heal it easily." Hermione said, trying to give Ron a believable smile, when all she really wanted to do was grit her teeth in pain.
"No, I'll just heal it now; you can't go around for days with a broken hand." Ron said, as if the idea were preposterous as he reached next to his pillow and picked up his wand.
"Ron, you know you're not allowed to do magic outside of school!" Hermione reprimanded.
"Wrong Hermione, you're not allowed to do magic outside of school, me and Harry are of age!" Ron said with a grin and a flourish of his wand, Hermione glared at him. "Now, I'm not too good at healing charms, but I know I can do them better than Lockhart in second year. Do you trust me?"
"Of course I do." Hermione said, holding out her battered hand towards Ron. He waved his wand and said an incantation.
"How's it feel?" Ron asked uncertainly as her hand still looked rather bruised. Hermione clenched and unclenched her fist.
"A little sore and bruised obviously…" Hermione started before Harry interrupted her in a mocking Lockhart tone.
"Yes… well… that can sometimes happen."
"Oh be quiet Harry," Hermione said, giving him a glare before looking back at Ron. "It's definitely not broken anymore, thanks Ron."
"You're welcome Hermione." Ron said, looking away. "You know, it's actually good that you still have the bruises, that way Samantha doesn't get any more suspicious after that milkshake thing." Ron and Harry smiled remembering the incident.
"I'm going to get dressed and then head down to breakfast; I'll meet you two down there." Hermione said as she stood up and headed out of the room.
Ron and Harry made it down to breakfast before Hermione, they were both wearing jeans, Harry had on a green t-shirt with black dragon across the chest, and Ron had on a nice blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
When Hermione finally came down in a red polo shirt and tan corduroys, the two boys were stuffing whole muffins into their mouths. Hermione gave them a look of disgust before sitting beside them and grabbing a muffin herself.
After breakfast had been consumed, Mr. Granger made an announcement. "Today, we're going to do something fun! I know how bored the children probably are, so I was thinking we could spend the entire day doing things with them! First we're going to go roller skating, and then tonight we're going to this little karaoke place for dinner!" Mr. Granger looked smiling around at all the faces that in general didn't seem too excited.
Everyone piled into cars, Hermione drove Harry and Ron in her car.
"I'm so excited!" Harry exclaimed. "I haven't gone roller skating since I was like, eight I think. Ms. Figg was sick so Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had to take me with them to Dudley's birthday party, it was terrific!"
"What's roller skating?" Ron asked, he had been wondering ever since he heard Mr. Granger mention it.
"It's wonderful!" Harry explained. "You put these shoes on that have wheels on the bottom and you, well, skate around."
"Sort of like ice skating on the ground?" Ron asked.
"Exactly!" Harry said.
Ron grinned, "I can do that, been ice skating ever since I was able to walk, I have. I guess muggles aren't as stupid as they seem, sliding down snowy hills on pieces of wood, heh." Ron looked at Hermione as he said this, he was making fun of skiing, but she remained quiet. "You alright Hermione?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." Hermione said before returning to her unusual quiet, Ron however, did not push her, but instead opted to give her curious glances occasionally as he talked with Harry who was in the back seat.
They soon arrived at the skating rink and everyone piled out of their cars. Ron and Harry excitedly followed Mrs. Granger inside, followed reluctantly by Hermione. Soon Ron and Harry were strapping the skates they had rented to their feet, they had both decided upon getting roller blades as they were closest thing to ice skates.
Hermione had gotten regular skates, but instead of putting them on, she set them down underneath the bench she was sitting on and pulled out a book. Ron and Harry gave each other a look before turning it on Hermione.
"You are not going to sit there and read. We are going to go have fun skating." Ron said matter-of-factly.
"You call rolling around in a circle fun? I mean, look at everyone, they aren't even getting anywhere." Hermione said, gesturing towards the rink. "I find the whole idea rather ridiculous."
"Ridiculous? Hermione it's fun!" Ron whined.
"Well, I'm not doing it!"
Ron and Harry gave each other another look; each had a smile and a mischievous glint in their eye. Without a word being spoken, Ron grabbed Hermione's right foot at the ankle and Harry unceremoniously jammed the proper roller skate on her socked foot. Hermione fidgeted and even gave Ron a kick or two with her other foot, but Ron held fast and soon Harry had tightened the skate and tied it in an unruly knot.
As soon as the right foot was done, Ron grabbed her left with one hand but still held tight to the right with his other; he didn't much fancy getting kicked with a heavy roller skate. As soon as Harry had successfully tied the other skate they both let go and jumped away from her the best they could with skates on themselves.
Hermione glared dangerously at the two before attempting to untie the knots. After a few minutes of utter failure in even loosening the knots Hermione once again shot Ron and Harry a glare that could kill before picking up her book and opening it up.
"Hermione!" Ron and Harry wailed in unison as they slowly approached her.
"Please skate with us?" Harry asked.
"Please?" Ron added giving her the best sad puppy dog look he could manage.
"Look," Hermione said quietly, "I can't skate alright?"
"What do you mean you can't skate?" Ron asked. "It's easy."
"I mean that if I were to go out there, I would make a total fool myself."
"Why would your Da-uh-Mr. Granger suggest skating if his own daug-uh if you can't even skate." Ron said nervously, scratching the back of his neck when he finished.
"For goodness sake Ron, my parents are still my parents, just because they aren't my birth parents, it doesn't change anything." Hermione said frustrated as she closed her book and set it beside her.
"Why can't you skate Hermione?" Harry asked, disturbing the awkward silence.
"Well, when I moved in with my mum and dad, I decided then that I had to prove to them that they hadn't made a mistake by taking me in. I had to be the perfect daughter, I studied hard, made good grades, practiced the piano unceasingly so I could perform for their business associates whenever they had parties. Skating or anything else considered fun just didn't matter to me."
"Hermione…" Ron said slowly.
"I'm not like that anymore Ron, I've changed a lot, but that still doesn't mean that I'm going to go make a complete idiot of myself. Dad probably just wasn't thinking when he suggested skating," Hermione looked at her skates, "Dad doesn't think a lot…"
Ron and Harry sighed. "Look, you're going to skate and you're going to have some fun." Ron said before he and Harry grabbed her under the arm and hoisted her to her feet.
A/N: Sorry to just leave it like that, but I haven't updated in forever and if I didn't get this out now, I felt like I never would, so sorry!! I will continue from this point next time.
Name that quote, what movie is that line from??
Just a Thought: Does Hermione remind any of y'all of Tapanga (sp?) from Boy Meets World? I was watching an old episode and Finny was getting all mad and he was like "If you don't butt out and let them do it on their own, you fail." And she was all like "But I'm Tapanga, I never fail." They're both smart and when Tapanga is younger, she's got crazy hair, and they both have weird names, I can see a similarity!
New Shirt: I got a new shirt the other day from Hot Topic and it says 'Muggle' across the front of it, haha, it's freakin awesome!! Just thought you ought to know…
EXPLANATION: In the U.S. or at least in Georgia, you can get your real drivers license at the age of 16, I have no idea what the law is in England, but for the story, Hermione is 16 with her license and Harry and Ron are 17, I'm a believer that Hermione is a little younger than the two of them. I apologize if this doesn't fit with law or your belief, but for my story, that's what I'm sticking with.
As always, thank y'all for reading and reviewing, I wouldn't write this story without y'all and every one of them means the world to me!!