A/N: Hi everyone! I had a bad cold for a while so this update is rather late. Sorry! I may not be updating very fast for the next couple of weeks as it is…Christmas! Yay! I know it's an incredibly commercial holiday, all about money and presents, etc etc, but I do love Christmas. It has a wonderful atmosphere about it. Anyway, my schedule will be hectic so my updating might be a bit random.

Anyhoo, on with the story!

Oh yeah, it's the Hogsmeade weekend in this chapter. I know my time scale is screwed up but it just fits in with the story to be the weekend, so just pretend it is!

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Ron finished reading his diary entry with his cheeks flushed scarlet. He cleared his throat and hastily shut the tatty old book, causing a small cloud of dust to fly up into the air.

The children were sniggering amongst themselves and Harry looked like he was about to explode with laughter.

"I never knew you were such an angsty teenager Ron!" he joked, patting Ron on the shoulder as he leant over to pick up his half finished cup of tea.

"Oh shut up!" said Ron grimacing, "I was only 17 then, we weren't all mature Quidditch captains like you!"

"I can't believe you told Seamus to give Lavender a Quidditch book!" laughed Hermione, "She was hinting like mad that she wanted the new Ruby Gold perfume!"

Ron shrugged and smiled sheepishly, and went over to watch Mark and James' chess game. Hermione looked thoughtfully at the diary.

"I never knew Ron wrote about me so much!" she said to Ginny, gesturing at the diary.

"Yes, I used to have a peek at it every now and then," said Ginny absentmindedly.

"You knew he kept a diary?" asked Hermione astonished, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I figured that there are some things that need to be kept private," said Ginny, "He used to hide it in a rubbish place though, under his mattress! Probably thought it was a master hiding place…"

Hermione and Ginny laughed and sat back in their chairs. The living room was cosily heated by a small log fire, which was blazing merrily away and cast flickers of light upon the squashy armchairs and sofas. The room was filled with the sounds of laughter and chatter, outside the window tiny snowflakes began to fall from the darkening sky.

At last the chess game came to a dramatic end, with James checkmating Mark by the skin of his teeth. Molly and Sirius giggled as Mark sulked and demanded a rematch, claiming that James was cheating.

The argument looked set to drive a wedge between Mark and James, but distraction came in the form of Hermione, who offered to tell the next part of the story.

"Oh yeah Mum, you tell it!" said Rose delightedly, "You're good at telling stories!"

Jane and Molly swiftly agreed and came to sit next to their Mum on the sofa.

The boys, little Sirius, James and Mark simply shrugged their shoulders and said that they 'Weren't bothered either way' but Hermione noticed that they moved their chairs slightly nearer and stopped talking in order to listen.

Smiling, Hermione looked around at the children, her husband and Harry and Ginny and proceeded with the tale.

"The Hogsmeade visit that weekend got off to a chilly start…"

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I stamped my feet impatiently as I stood outside in the snowy courtyard, my breath forming misty clouds before me. It was the Hogsmeade weekend, and it had snowed last night so I had wrapped up warm in a woolly scarf and a pair of mittens; not the coolest fashion accessory but it kept me warm, and that's all that matters really.

Harry and Ginny stood behind me, keeping each other warm by continually snogging each other like there was no tomorrow. Frankly, the loud sucking noises made me wish there was no tomorrow and I was on the brink of telling them to go and find somewhere more private. I mean, we were in the middle of the courtyard!

However, being a tolerant and kind friend, I continued to stand with them as we waited for Ron. He was late because he couldn't find his trainers, according to Harry, and he had demanded that we all wait for him. Now I was standing in the freezing cold, my toes numb and my nose red and dripping. With all that and my lovely mittens, I bet I looked very attractive!

"Where's Ron?" asked Ginny, finally pulling away from Harry reluctantly and sounding annoyed,"Everyone else has already gone, we're wasting time!"

"Oh hello Ginny," I grinned, "Finally removed yourself from Harry's mouth then I see?"

Harry blushed while Ginny playfully stuck her tongue out at me. Harry looked at his watch, a battered old digital one, obviously a cast off from his delightful cousin.

"Shall Ginny and I just go on ahead?" he said, gesturing at the gate, his face pleading.

I pretended to think for a moment, my head cocked to one side. Harry mouthed 'please!' at me and smiled hopefully.

"Fine then, you two go ahead, have a good time! We'll catch up with you later." I said, grinning playfully, "Just don't snog too much in front of Ron, you know what he's like!"

Ginny grimaced. "Yes, unfortunately I do!" she said, laughing as she took Harry's hand and started to pull him towards the gate. "See you later!" they shouted, before walked briskly off down the path, their arms around each other's waists.

I sat down on a nearby wall and smiled to myself. Harry and Ginny made such a cute couple and although I made jokes about their constant snogging and my continuing exasperation at how lovey-dovey they were, I was genuinely happy for them. Harry was one of my best friends, and it was nice to see him so happy.

I sighed and conjured up a small flame in a jar to keep me warm. Where was Ron? I looked around the courtyard, but there was no sign of him, just a couple of first years who were having a very loud and exuberant snowball fight.

"Hermione!"

I looked up, sighing with relief. Ron was running across the courtyard towards me, scattering the first years and kicking up snow in every direction.

"About time too Ron!" I said exasperatedly, standing up and picking up my bag from the snow. Ron bent over, panting and clutching his chest.

"Wait…one minute…got stitch…" he muttered, before sitting down heavily on the wall.

I sat down beside him, rolling my eyes and I suddenly got a huge whiff of aftershave.

Coughing and spluttering, I leapt to my feet and backed away from him.

"Ron, what is that? It stinks!" I said, slowly walking towards him, wary of the scent, "Why are you wearing aftershave?"

"I'm not!" Ron retorted, his expression reddening, "I just…well…maybe a little…"

"A little!" I said disbelievingly, "Or just the whole bottle?"

Muttering something about 'Seamus lent it to me', Ron hastily stood up, cleared his throat and changed the subject,

"Where are Harry and Ginny? I thought we were going with them?"

"You took so long that they went on ahead! We'd better go now, or Filch is going to close the gates in a minute."

Sure enough, Filch was waiting by the gates impatiently, his eyes fixed on his watch.

"Come on." I said, and we walked out of the courtyard down the path to Hogsmeade.

It was bitterly cold and our feet crunched as we made our way down the frosty path. I spotted Harry and Ginny quite far ahead, just going into Hogsmeade by one of the many side street entrances.

"So where do you want to go today?" said Ron, rubbing his hands together. I noticed, sighing impatiently that he hadn't brought any gloves with him.

"Ron, you are going to get frostbite with no gloves!" I said, taking one of my mittens off.

"Don't give me one of yours!" he said, "It's not fair on you!"

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Ron, I wasn't planning on giving you mine!" I said, "I'm just going to duplicate it with that new charm Flitwick taught us!"

"Oh ok." Ron said, looking disheartened. "I was just trying to be gentlemanly that's all!"

"Geminus manica!" (A/N: This actually means double glove in Latin!) I said, waving my wand in an S-shape just like Flitwick had taught us. The glove did a little wiggle in the air and another glove, exactly the same as the other fell into my hand. I repeated it for the other glove and handed them over to Ron, who looked very impressed and slipped them on at once.

"Blimey that's a useful spell!" said Ron, hurrying to catch up with me, "Does it work on living things like animals or even humans?"

"Yes, but it's illegal," I said, "It would be like cloning something."

We arrived at the entrance to Hogsmeade. The little winding street was packed with students and villagers doing shopping or just standing and chatting. We slowly made our way up the road, dodging an old fashioned horse and cart and several giggling fourth years.

"Shall we get a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks?" Ron said, shivering and looking longingly at the homely pub just ahead of us.

I nodded and made eagerly for the warm pub. It was freezing outside and a hot Butterbeer would be just the thing to warm me up…

But just as I stepped into the threshold of the pub with Ron, a loud masculine voice with a strong Bulgarian accent called my name from behind us.

"Hermy-own-ninny!"

Shocked, I span round quickly, knocking into Ron. Viktor Krum was striding across the street towards us, followed by two burly bodyguards.

"It is me, Viktor Krum!" he called, waving whilst passerbys stopped and stared. It wasn't everyday that world famous Quidditch stars came to Hogsmeade!

The first thought that went through my head was 'Why is he here? Aaaaah! Help!' but I surpressed this thought and went to greet him.

I stuck my hand out him politely but he seized it and pulled me into a brief hug. Flustered, I noticed Ron scowling behind me and I quickly pulled away and voiced the question that was in my mind.

"Hello Viktor! Um…what are you doing here?" I was still in state of shock so I wasn't feeling particularly loquacious.

"Vell I am here vith my fiancée Ruby," he said, "She has come to promote her new perfume. It is being sold at Gladrags."

I thought Ron's eyes were going to pop out of his head.

"Ruby? Do you mean Ruby Gold? Ruby Gold is here!" he said, looking wildly around as if she would suddenly appear from thin air.

I rolled my eyes. Ron always got over excited over celebrities!

Viktor seemed to notice Ron for the first time. "You are Hon, yes?"

"Ur…no, it's Ron," he said, looking awestruck that someone as famous as Krum would even know his name (well a close variation of it anyway!), though still frowning slightly.

"She is coming now, I is seeing her come." Krum said to Ron, gesturing towards Gladrags wizard shop.

I looked over at the shop and grimaced. There was a large crowd coming towards us, and in the centre of it all walked a slim blonde witch. Ruby Gold. She was very pretty but had a haughty expression on her face as she waved at people and signed a few autographs. I noticed with disgust that she was wearing a fur-lined cloak over designer jeans and high heeled boots. To top it off she wore a phoenix feather hat over her perfectly coifed blonde hair that was blowing in the icy wind and she struggled to keep it on her head.

When she and the large crowd had reached us, the bodyguards ordered the crowd to disperse, which they did, albeit reluctantly. I noticed Seamus and Dean walk disappointedly away, clutching their autograph books and quills.

"Hi Viktor darling!" she said with a strong American accent, "Everyone is going crazy for my new perfume!"

Ruby stopped and looked at Ron and I as if we were a piece of dirt on the heel of her designer boot.

"And..ur..who are you?" she drawled, looking me up and down and sneering slightly. "Do you want an autograph too? Well you'll have to wait sweeties; my fiancée and I are busy at the moment!"

I was reminded immensely of Lockhart and Umbridge combined.

I stared at her coolly, "I'm Hermione Granger and I'm Viktor's friend. This is my friend Ron."

I was determined to show her that just because she was a famous star she couldn't boss us around. Ron wasn't helping by staring at her idiotically with his mouth slightly open.

"Yes Ruby, this is Hermy-own-ninny. I vent to the Yule ball vith her at the Triwizard Tournament. She is a good friend." Krum smiled at me.

I smiled back feeling triumphant. Ruby was looking annoyed as she had obviously heard about me from Krum.

"Well," she said, smiling dangerously, "Viktor and I must be going, lots to do, lots to see!"

She turned her back on us imperiously, took Krum's arm and started to pull him away. Viktor however, shook himself free and gave me a quick hug, whispering in my ear, "It vas nice to see you again, take care of yourself yes?"

I nodded and he smiled at me and walked off with Ruby, who was looking positively murderous now. They walked off together with the bodyguards close behind.

Ron shook his head slightly as if to clear his head. "I can't believe it!" he murmured, "I met Ruby Gold!"

I looked after them thoughtfully, "What a horrible woman!" I said, "Did you see the horrible cloak she was wearing? I shudder to think how many animals died for the sake of it!"

Ron gestured towards the door of the Three Broomsticks and shivered. "Let's go get a Butterbeer now," he said, "We can tell everyone!"

I shook my head and laughed. Somethings never changed!

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A/N: Ok, so random ending to chapter, I know! This was a long one actually, I didn't mean to do it so long! Oh well….

I hope you all remembered Ruby Gold! If not, you need to re-read chapter 2!

So, please review and have a very merry Christmas! (If I don't update before then!)

Lizzy xxx