A/N: Another chapter! So this is New Years. Tell me what you think of this one. I think it's easier to write them when it's just the four of them or just Ron and Hermione. It's more intaminte (sp?) that way!
-Kylie
One and Only
Chapter Twenty-two
Over the next couple of days things were good. They spent sometime in the snow and playing chess. Ron worked some on the Herald and Hermione on her book.
On New Years Eve, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had a party at the Ministry to go to. Everyone else decided that they would have a party at the Burrow. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry invited Neville and Luna. Bill and Fleur invited a few friends from work. Alison and Charlie invited four of their friends. Penelope and Percy invited some friends from their departments in the ministry. And Fred, George, Angelina and Alicia invited Lee Jordan and Katie Bell (the newest couple.) The morning of Hermione and Ginny sat in the living room of the Burrow, talking with Alison.
"So what shall we cook tonight?" Alison asked.
"I think the guys should cook." Ginny said. Alison laughed.
"Yeah right. I don't want to even think about what they could come up with." Alison said.
"Ron can make pretty good Mac and Cheese." Hermione shrugged.
"Why don't we just send them to the store and we'll do the cooking." Angelina suggested, coming into the room with a yawn.
"Yeah we'll need a lot of stuff to make food for all of the people that are coming." Hermione agreed. Alicia, Penelope, and Fleur joined them and they all were given parts to help with the food.
"We'll have them decorate too." Alicia said.
"Yeah." Ginny agreed. "It would make it feel more partyish." The girls reconvened at the kitchen table when Mrs. Weasley came down to make breakfast. Slowly the guys came down to join them. When they told them their jobs for the day Fred and George agreed with smiles.
"We wanted to stop and pick up a box of our New Years gags anyways." George said with a mischievous smile.
"Just don't set the house on fire." Mrs. Weasley said.
"Don't worry mum. If anything catches fire we'll put it out." Fred joked. Mrs. Weasley didn't think that that was too funny because she smacked him upside the head.
After breakfast everyone went upstairs to their rooms to get ready to go out. Fleur stayed downstairs to make the list because she was already dressed. Since they talked to Mrs. Weasley over the summer and since the night that Harry and Ginny fell asleep in the same room, Mrs. Weasley allowed them to share rooms. Ron and Hermione made their way up to their attic bedroom. Hermione started toward her trunk but Ron stopped her by putting his her shoulder.
"What's up?" Hermione asked, turning with a smile. Ron pulled her close to him and kissed her.
"I'm just excited about going into the New Year with you." Ron said with a bigger smile. Hermione kissed his cheek.
"Me too." She said with a smile. After one last kiss she pulled away to get changed. Hermione put on a pair of gray sweatpants and a big t- shirt. She planned on changing for the party after they finished cooking. She and Ron walked down the stairs together. Everyone else was already down there. The guys were putting on coats as Fleur told them what to get.
"Zis is ze list." Fleur said, handing the list to Bill. "We need everything zat is on it."
"Yes ma'am." Bill joked, kissing her. All 6 of the brothers and Harry disappeared with several cracks and the girls headed to the kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley left so that they wouldn't bother the girls doing all of the cooking. Hermione started to put an apron on and conversation began.
"So how are the wedding plans coming along?" Penelope asked Alicia and Angelina. The wedding topic carried them out for a whole half hour. Hermione and Ginny didn't participate much in the conversation because it was mostly about how exciting weddings were. They used all they could to cook and they planned on finishing when the guys brought the rest of the stuff. The girls were in the kitchen finishing up when the guys Apparated into the living room. The girls went in to see them. Percy and Penelope started looking through the bags to organize them, then they started organizing everyone.
"Everyone will be here at 6 and it's 12 right now so we should all split up to do different jobs." Percy said.
"Someone has to decorate, and clean and the cooking needs to be finished." Penelope said.
"Why don't the girls finish cooking and we'll do the cleaning and decorating." Charlie said.
"Or we could split everyone up." Hermione suggested; cooking was getting tiresome.
"Yeah." Ginny agreed. "We've been cooking all morning.
"I will cook in ze kitchen still." Fleur said.
"I'll help." Alicia said.
"I'll help too." Bill said.
"Count me in too." Alison said.
"Well I'll clean." Penelope said.
"Yeah me too." Percy said.
"Fred and I will help." Angelina said. Fred shot her a death glare.
"So will Ginny and I." Harry said. Ginny shot him a death glare.
"And then Ron, Mione, George and I will decorate." Charlie said.
"So if everyone does what they're supposed to we can be done by four." Percy said.
"Then we'll only have two hours to get ready." Ginny complained.
"I think you'll survive Gin." Ron said.
"Yeah right." Ginny said.
They all split up and went to do what they were supposed to. Hermione emptied out the bags of decorations. There were streamers, and balloons, and plastic top hats that flashed a New Years greeting, party horns, indoor fireworks, and a box of Fred and George's gags. Hermione and Ron were on balloon detail. They used a helium spell so the balloons would float and confetti was inside them so at midnight they would pop and confetti would go everywhere. After getting about 10 blown up, Hermione looked over at Ron and decided to have a little fun. Instead of tying one she sent it in Ron's direction. He seemed shocked but sent another one right back at her. Hermione ducked it though.
"Missed me!" Hermione teased with her tongue out. Ron took that distraction as an advantage and sent another one at her.
"HA!" Ron shouted. Hermione laughed then faked a scared face.
"Spider!" She exclaimed pointing behind her. Ron's face turned sheer white. He turned to look behind him and Hermione jumped on his back, practically strangling him.
"That's not funny!" Ron exclaimed. He walked over to a couch and flipped her on it. Ron pinned her down and started to tickle her sides. Charlie and George were watching and laughing. Hermione's shrieks and laughter filled the room. Then she noticed something on Ron's shoulder.
"Spider!" She shrieked. "There's a spider on your shoulder!"
"Oh I'm not falling for it this time!" Ron said but then he felt something move on his shoulder. When he looked over he saw a big black, hairy spider looking at him. He screamed and started trying to get the spider off but whenever he went to brush the spider it moved to another spot. Ron was practically dancing trying to get it off. Then she noticed Charlie and George each taking turns moving their wand simultaneously as the spider moved. After some laughs she used her own wand to direct the spider off of Ron. Charlie and George were on the floor with laughter and there was more laughter from the doorway to the living room. Harry was standing there bent over in laughter. Ron fell back on the couch with deep breaths.
"I – am gunna – get – you – back – so – bad." Ron said in between breaths. Charlie and George continued to laugh more.
"I can't wait for that." Harry laughed as he made his way back to cleaning.
Around four o'clock everyone was finished. An array of foods had been cooked; all of the decorating and cleaning was done. Everyone was in the living room.
"So people will be here in two hours so we should start getting ready." Alison suggested.
"I call first shower upstairs!" Ginny rushed up the stairs. Everyone else rushed after her to get ready.
After Hermione took a shower Ron went to take one and Hermione started to look through her clothes. She chose a plain white long sleeve shirt with a sparkly turquoise halter over it, and a pair of jeans. As she was fixing her hair and make-up Ron came back up. He changed into a pair of jeans and a striped blue and white button up shirt with a white t-shirt underneath.
"Ready?" Ron asked after he ran a comb through his hair. "I'm starved."
"Well we have a couple minutes…." Hermione said suggestively as she stuck another bobby pin in her hair. Ron turned to her and smiled.
"We could, wait a couple minutes." Ron said, closing the door and walking toward Hermione.
When they got down stairs everyone but Harry and Ginny were there. Hermione set up the radio again. At six Harry and Ginny were still upstairs. Hermione was going to go check on them but Harry came down carrying Ginny, who was fighting him.
"I don't like this outfit!" Ginny protested.
"She kept changing her outfit." Harry explained to everyone who was looking at them funny.
"Gin, you look great and people are almost here." Hermione said.
"Fine." Ginny sighed, starting toward the butterbeer.
An hour later everyone had arrived. Ron and Harry were discussing Quidditch with Neville across the room from Hermione, Ginny and Luna were talking about some crazy creature that Neville and Luna planned to find over the summer.
Hermione caught Ron's eye from across the room. He winked at her and she smiled back. Hermione then tried to pay attention to Luna but found her eyes drifting to Ron. After some silent flirting Hermione finally excused herself from Luna and Ginny to go see Ron. She made her way toward him but Percy pulled her away.
"Come on. Some of my friends from the ministry want to talk to you about R and H Books." Percy said.
"But I –" Hermione started but Percy didn't wait for her to speak as he pulled her over to two people standing with Penelope.
"This is Hermione Granger." Percy said. "She and my younger brother own the old quill shop."
"Hermione this is Susan and Nathan. They work at the Ministry with us." Penelope said.
"Nice to meet you." Hermione said politely. She tried to slowly back away but Percy had an arm around. She really wanted to be with Ron right now but she continued on with the conversation as politely as she could.
Ron watched as Hermione walked toward him and then Percy pulled her away to talk with some people. Ron was about to walk to her but Charlie took his arm.
"Ron, some people are interested in hearing about the Herald." Charlie said, pulling her away. Ron knew Hermione was stuck in another conversation and they couldn't sneak off into the kitchen so he followed Charlie, interested in talking about the Herald.
Hermione finally managed to excuse herself from the conversation. Susan and Nathan questioned Hermione about every possible detail of R and H Books. She looked around to find Ron. She found him talking with Charlie and a couple other people. She sighed, deciding not to interrupt and looked around for Harry and Ginny. She spotted Harry on the couch by himself just sitting there with a smile on his face, looking a little disheveled. Hermione started over toward him and took a seat next to him on the couch.
"What's up?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing." Harry said with a stupid grin on his face. Hermione looked over at him. He seemed off in space.
"Did you know your hair is messed up?" Hermione asked.
"Oh." Harry answered. He didn't do anything to fix his hair.
"Where's Ginny?" Hermione asked.
"Upstairs." Harry didn't seem to notice Hermione getting annoyed with his one-word answers.
"And why are you smil–" She started but as all of the questions clicked together her solution seemed to answer itself. Harry knew she had figured it out and he fell out of his daze and turned to Hermione. "You and Ginny – tonight – here?" She spit it out, not managing to make a whole sentence. "Why didn't she tell me?" Hermione asked. "We pretty much tell each other about this kind of stuff all of the time."
"Hermione, this is really awkward for me because you're my best girl – friend and you're practically like a sister to me. It just kind of happened and I'm sure if you go find Ginny she'll tell you." Harry said, running his hand through his hair to flatten it out.
"Alright, well you can go back to your own world now." Hermione laughed, walking toward the stairs to find Ginny.
