All the usual Disclaimers!
I will be aiming to updated one chapter on Sat and one on Sunday every week!
Wish me luck and let's enjoy the journey!
Hermione Granger and Percy Weasley. The only time one would put these names together in a sentence would be to talk about the most smart and diligent students of Hogwarts. Rule breaking and making illegal wagers was definitely best left to the twins or Harry and Ron. But here's how a little competition between the two of them would end up changing the fate of the entire wizarding world!
It all began harmlessly enough with an advance arithmancy problem. Now Hermione's OWLs would only be next year but that never stopped her from getting ahead. She was perhaps the only student who would have finished revising her entire OWL syllabus the year before.
Like always she was scheduled to head up to the Burrow during the tail end of the summer vacations. The Weasley's were like a second family. Being an only child she enjoyed a full house with crazy siblings. This year however was one year before the OWLs and she was focussed on getting all Os already. She was excited as Ron had told her both Bill and Charile would be home this summer! Finally something good had come out of Quidditch. Her plan was simple, she was going to ask Bill and Percy for all the the material she could on the OWLs. Old textbooks and such and also any additional pointers they might have.
2 weeks before the Quidditch World Cup
Hermione's arrival had been quite eventful to say the least. When she and Mr. Weasley got back it smelt like the kitchen was on fire and Mrs. Weasley was screaming her lungs off at the Twins. The Weasley Wizarding Wheezes forms had been discovered and were currently a bonfire in the sink while the twins got an earful. Later that evening Bill had arrived and Charlie was due to come in later this week. After an early supper, Hermione had cornered Bill and currently they were in the middle of discussing the various subjects that you could choose and what career paths they opened up for you. Neither of them realised that it had gotten quite late when Percy popped in from the floo.
"Hello Hermione, Bill welcome home…" Percy said politely though you could tell he was looking exhausted.
"Hi Brother, I heard you're doing well at the Ministry" Bill smiled as he got up to give Percy a light hug
"Oh yes, absolutely, I'm loving it. There is so much work with the World Cup and the other thing later this year…" Percy sat down shedding his robes
"So what department do you work in?" Hermione asked
"International Magical Co-operation" He said proudly
"Oh wow, I bet you can't wait till they have you travelling all over the world" Hermione said
"That won't be for sometime now, but I'm grateful for all the work I'm getting to do… Aren't you here earlier than usual?"
"Smooth Perce…" Bill said sarcastically "But actually she came earlier in hopes of speaking with the both of us…" he finished smiling at Hermione
"Really? What can I help you with?" Percy asked a little surprised
"Well, I was hoping to get a head start on my Owls, Bill's given me a fair idea of the subjects and the career opportunities, I was wondering if the both of you could help with some of your old study material or recommend other books I could start with?" Hermione said in one breath
"Oh sure… I'm glad to see that spending time with Ron hasn't impacted your ambitions" Percy quipped and tinkered at his own joke
"Oh Perce you're home! I'll heat up you dinner…" Mrs. Weasley said as she emerged from the stairs
"Thank you mother, but I'll help myself…" Percy said walking into the kitchen
"Get some sleep ma, we'll keep him company" Bill said following Percy as she smiled warmly at his mother
That night the 3 of them had a spirited discussion about the subjects and professors, how the curriculum had changed. Percy and Bill both deep dived into their professions the details of other careers that they had considered. Percy and Bill even got into a friendly debate about the various officials from different ministries and Hermione spent most of the night listening and soaking in everything she could from her pseudo older brothers.
Over the coming week, Hermione borrowed some of Percy's and the twins old books. Her day had fallen into a sort of a routine. Wake up early, study a bit, help out with the chores, spend time with Ron and Ginny, study a bit more, help with the supper, spend time with Bill and Percy in the night clearing up some doubts.
The end of the second week came sooner than expected. At their post dinner session, Hermione brought up topic of the application of arithmancy. It had always been her most favourite subject and she found that advance arithmancy was just as fun. During this discussion Bill spoke quite passionately about the subject as it was something her was accustomed to using while Curse Breaking. Percy on the other hand said he only took that OWL and NEWT cause he didn't want to be in Trelawny's class. This ended up in quite a debate about the how the subject was actually useful everywhere
"You're only saying that cause you're too busy drafting the laws, someone else runs the numbers for you guys!" Bill said exasperatedly at Percy
"I still have to check those numbers!" Percy countered "All I'm saying is that it's really not the most easy subject and honestly, the Hogwarts curriculum could benefit with a bit of an upgrade in subject choices…"
"I bet you couldn't solve an equation if it gave you one right now?" Bill said baiting Percy
"I bet I could and bet I'd do it faster than you" Percy countered
"How about faster than me?" Hermione said jumping in before the debate turned into an all out fight
"A little proud of ourselves are we?" Percy said
"She should be" Bill interjected "She's already on NEWT level problems!"
"Really?" Percy was genuinely caught off guard.
"I mean, I might have been more partial to arithmancy in my reading material… and Bill might just have given me some tests for fun…" Hermione said awkwardly
"I think this is a great idea, it'll be fun, I'll give you both a puzzle and whoever solves it first wins something of their choice from me!" Bill said "Come on Perce, when was the last time you had a real intellectual challenge in the Ministry?"
"Fine…" Percy said trying to sound bored but failing
Pencils, papers and a 5min hourglass were conjured and Bill scribbled an equation on a piece of paper.
"The hourglass will flip the second the both of you turn over this sheet of paper, you have 5 minutes to solve this. 3, 2, 1 go!"
The paper flipped and seconds later Percy and Hermione were busy scribbling furiously on their respective papers muttering to themselves.
The hourglass was barely 2 mins in when both of them screamed "DONE!"
Bill pulled their sheets to himself and examined them both individually.
Bill looked up sombrely "Hermione, I'm sorry…" he amped it up "but please don't ask me for makeup! You won!" He finished excitedly!
"What! Oh come one!" Percy whined
"You were so close Perce, but unfortunately, a square and a rhombus aren't the same thing…" Bill said patting him on the back
"It's fine, it's not like I need to use this anyway… congratulations 'mione… I guess you truly are turning out to be the brightest witch of our age" Percy said with a smile…
"So! What do you want?" Bill asked matter of factly
"Umm… I don't know… can I let you know tomorrow?" She said…
"Done, we better turn in for the night"
"Yup, Harry's coming tomorrow"
"And I have to finishing writing up a document too so i'll have an early morning as well.."
With that they headed to their rooms, little did they know, this little contest had altered everything that was to come.
The next morning Hermione was up early as per usual, she sorted through the books and packed away most of her things. She knew she would have little time now. Harry was coming and they were leaving for the Quidditch world cup too. She also wanted to get in a nice bath before the rest of the household woke up. Being an only child, this was her one guilty pleasure, a bathroom all to herself to take long luxurious baths. She loved it more than anything else. Suddenly an Idea struck her, she knew exactly what she wanted from Bill. It was however something Percy would have to help her with.