Author's Note: I'm sorry the last chapter was so short, but it looked a lot longer in Word, oh well, here goes chapter 2.
Pop, "Hey Ginny, Mom," Ron paused, "Hermione." He and Harry had just arrived for lunch. "Smells good Mom, what is it?" Ron asked, bending over a steaming pot in the sink.
"Ron, that's the underwear I'm washing for you." Mrs. Weasley answered giggling. Ginny and Hermione joined her, but they weren't just giggling, they were rolling on the floor doubled up in laughter.
"Oh, uh," Ron's whole face matched his hair, "right, well, what are we eating?"
Now laughing hysterically too, Mrs. Weasley answered, "Just sandwiches dear, what would you like to drink?" She was trying to gain composure, but failing abysmally at it.
"Iced tea," he grunted.
"What about you Harry dear?"
Harry had just barely managed to keep a straight face during the whole ordeal, was very pale because it was taking all his strength not to join the laughter. As soon as he said, "just water, thanks," he too began rolling on the floor.
"It wasn't that funny you know!" and really it wasn't, but it was just one of things where you laugh a little, but it turns into a lot. "Can we just eat so we can get to Diagon Alley?'
Lunch was a silent affair for the most part, but Ginny or Hermione would periodically break out in laughter. Each time Ron got red again, but always a little less than the time before. Once they cleaned up lunch they flooed to the Leaky Cauldron, seeing as how Ginny still couldn't apparate, after all she was only 16 years old. With five consecutive "Leaky Cauldron's" and five cheery hellos from Tom, and some tapping of bricks, they began browsing Diagon Alley.
"Okay you lot, we're only shopping for Ginny this year, we will have more time to just shop for fun," Mrs. Weasley said.
"Mum, can't Harry and I just go to Fred and George's shop until you guys are done? You're only going to Madam Malkin's, the Apothecary, and Flourish and Blott's," Ron pleaded.
"You know you didn't have to beg, you can go, just stay in their shop so that way I know where you are. Once we're done shopping, we can walk up and down the street a bit."
With that, Harry and Ron started walking towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and Hermione walked into Madam Malkin's.
Harry and Ron were barely a foot in the door when Fred dropped down right in front of them. "Hey you two, what are you doing here? Ginny is the only one going back to Hogwarts September 1st, that is unless Ron failed and he had to redo his entire seventh year," he said grinning.
"Of course not you idiot, we came here to see what you've done to the shop since we've been here last," Ron said exasperatedly.
Then George fell in right next to his twin, "Well as you can see, we've made our old flat above the store a second floor for our shop. We've each gotten our own flats in London now."
"Why did you guys get separate flats? I thought you did everything together?" Harry asked.
"I can answer that one," Ron interjected, cutting off Fred, "you see Harry, they have 'serious' girlfriends now." Here Ron used his fingers as quotation marks, "so they now need plenty of space, hint, hint, wink, wink."
With one of their trademark looks, Fred answered, "so what, we can afford it now," George stepped in and said, "which is a fat lot more than either of you can say, the money and the girlfriend part." That shut Ron up.
"I don't know what you are talking about, I've got plenty of gold, I just chose not spend as excessively as you do," Harry retorted. That shut Fred and George up, leaving Harry the only one to speak. "So what kind of new merchandise do you have now? Oh, and I'd like to see this second floor you've been going on about." Coming out of their silence, Fred and George began the tour.
"Okay, we've been to Madam Malkin's, the Apothecary, and now Flourish and Blott's," Mrs. Weasley said as she, Ginny, and Hermione exited Flourish and Blott's. "Right, so now we need to pick up Harry and Ron at Fred and George's shop." Once they got to the vividly colored shop, Mrs. Weasley spoke again, "I'm going to find Fred and George, or at least one of them at any rate. You two, umm…why don't you go look at the Wonder Witch products, I'm sure those two have come up with some new ones by now."
"Okay Mrs. Weasley, c'mon Ginny, I could use some of those products," Hermione said.
As they were walking, an amazing thought hit Ginny, "Hermione, you hinted a while ago that you like my brother, right? I NEED you to tell me if you still like and or love Ron now."
Hermione stood there in silence for a minute, this was not something she had expected Ginny to say. Of course she liked and or loved Ron, who wouldn't with his cute freckles and newly found Quidditch muscles (Hermione really like those). Those strong muscles made her whole body tingle when he had pulled her off of himself earlier. The thing was, did she really want Ginny to know all that? Ginny was one of her best friends, but Ron was her brother, but Ginny would understand something like that. "Yeah Ginny, I do love him, I really do."
"HA, ha ha ha ha , I knew it! Now all we have to do is get Ron to admit that he's in love with you, and I know just how to do it," Ginny said excitedly. She pulled Hermione towards a very pink, red, and purple section of the shop.
"No Ginny, absolutely not, I refuse to force Ron to fall in love with me," Hermione said indignantly.
"We don't have to force him, he loves you, we just have to get him to admit it!"
"I don't know Gin, are you sure he loves me?"
"Well duh, didn't you see how red his face was after what happened on the stairs?"
"NO!"
"You know what Hermione, you're a very intelligent person in general, but you didn't even see how red in the face he got."
"Well when his face gets red, it blends in with his hair! Can you blame me for not noticing?"
"Okay, okay that's true, but anyway back to how we're going to get the two of you together. Let's see," Ginny said as she was scanning the shelves, "it has got to be here, it just has to… ah ha! Here it is, La Veritisirum." She was holding a clear bottle with some kind of fluid purple substance in it. "Read the inscription on the bottle Hermione."
La Veritisirum: A mild form of the complex potion veritisirum which will get the boy of your dreams to confess and or think about all his true feelings for you. Side effects include possible and or probable: reddening of ears, swelling of lips, and not much else really…
"No Ginny, I can't force him to do it, I just wouldn't feel right, I'm sorry, I'm willing wait for him to come round. I just don't want to hurt him Ginny," Hermione said softly.
"I understand, I'll just have to come up with another way to get the two of you together," Ginny said slipping the little potion bottle into her pocket anyway thinking, it's for their own good. "Let's go find those guys, I would like to get some real shopping done, not just for school." As if on cue, Harry jumped down right in front of them, Ron not far behind.
"Hey Gin, erm Hermione, uh…Mum said we should get going so go check out anything if you need to," Ron said. Ginny nudged Hermione, motioning towards Ron's reddening face. Ginny need not have pointed it out though, she had noticed it as soon as he looked at her.
When Ginny went up to the check out counter Fred asked, "Gin why are you getting this, it isn't for Harry or something like that right?"
"No it is not for your information, it's for Ron from Hermione, she was just too nice to do it herself, so I'm going to do it for her."
"I'll give it to you for free if we get the first invite to the wedding."
"You got it," Ginny said grinning.
The rest of the afternoon went without much incident, the only mildly interesting things that happened were watching both Hermione and Ron blush when they bumped into each other.
That night when they got home, they could smell something cooking, and that got them all as far as the kitchen before they collapsed into the chairs around the table. They found Mr. Weasley bent over the stove actually cooking as Mrs. Weasley so rightly stated.
"Well I was hungry and I didn't' know when you lot would be home, and I know you'd be tired, so I whipped up a little something," Mr. Weasley replied. They all sat in silence except for Mr. Weasley who was babbling on about a muggle something or other, all the others were too tired and hungry to talk so they just listened patiently. Mrs. Weasley managed to pluck up the energy to throw together some pudding, and after that they all headed upstairs for a well deserved sleep.
Once Harry and Ron had collapsed in the bright orange room, Harry began talking about his ideas for ways Ron could convey his love to Hermione. Ron tried his hardest to stay awake, but Ron being Ron fell asleep.
Meanwhile in Ginny's room she and Hermione were doing the same thing, but finally Hermione being her sensible self said that they really should be getting some sleep.
Yet another Author's Note: Well, this one is longer, I just hope that it looks somewhat long to you too. Hey V! (just a friend that I gotta say hi to).
