Chapter 18 – Pinkie Swear


HG


They next weeks went by fast. Hermione's time was mostly spent in the library as most of her friends have been practicing none-stop since try-outs. Even on the days the quidditch pitch was booked for the other teams, Oliver still found ways to practice, leading them to an open field for drill runs, sending transfigured balls at them they had to dodge and what not. So, Hermione's time was divided between Lee, Cedric and Blaise. Lee and Hermione were studying in the library together when Lee started to pack his bag. Hermione looked up from her book in surprise.

"Where are you going?" She asked, putting her quill down.

"The twins have a potion brewing in our dorm, and it's time for me to add the last ingredients as they have practice... again." He sighed. Hermione knew how he felt. Just like Lee missed his two best friends due to practice, Hermione had to miss hers. Hermione had noticed Katie's change in behaviour the last couple of months but didn't find the right time to ask her about it.

"Do you need any help?" She asked. "Or is it a secret." She grinned up at him.

"No, no secret. Just trying to figure out how to make an antidote for the Green-rash-suckers." He shrugged as he lifted the bag over his shoulder.

"How do they test them?" Hermione asked curiously, she never really thought about it.

"They test them on their selves, or me."

"WHAT?!" Hermione shouted in the quiet library. The students around her looked up with a glare. Hermione ignored them and forcefully shoved her things in her bag and dragged Lee out the library.

"Hermione..."

"I can't believe you guys! Do you know how dangerous that is!" Hermione strutted quickly down the corridor. Lee, who's legs were longer than her, had to practically run to keep up.

"They do extensive research before they test it." Lee said placing a hand on her shoulder, making her stop. Hermione looked at him with glare. "Nothing really bad happened."

"Not yet you mean." Hermione sighed and her shoulders slumped. "I just want you to be safe."

"I know." He pulled her in a hug. "I probably shouldn't have said anything." He said as he rested his chin on top of her head. "Oh no, they are going to be mad at me."

Hermione pulled away, chuckling. "No, they won't. I'll just say I figured it out myself." She started walking to the grand staircase. "But you are going to show me everything they are working on!"

Lee looked at her, worried, contemplating what to do. What the twins would do if they were in his shoes right now.

"You know I can get into the boys' dorm anytime I want right?" Hermione gave him a pointed look.

"Fine, fine. I'll show you." He gave in and they walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower.


HG


Hermione was sitting on George's bed reading the twins notebook with all of their idea's while Lee sat in front of the cauldron as he added the last few ingredients. He was just about to add bat spleens when Hermione stopped him.

"Wait!" Her voice carried through the otherwise quiet room. Out of fright Lee had dropped the spleen out of his hand, but just before it touched the liquid in the cauldron, Lee could grab it with his other hand.

"Granger, could you not." Lee gasped as his heart thudded quickly.

"Sorry." Hermione smiled sheepishly. "But that's why it doesn't work." She said as she jumped off the bed. "Do you have any Lavender?" She asked as she rummaged through the cabinet with the ingredients.

"Lavender?" Lee asked as he stood up and walked up next to her. "I believe so, why?" He asked as he crouched down to look at the bottom shelf.

"Because it has healing properties for the skin. If you leave out the bat spleens and add half an ounce of Lavender, it should do the trick."

"I've got it!" Lee cried triumphantly as he jumped up, holding a bag of Lavender. "Half an ounce you say?" He asked as he dropped down in front of the cauldron again. Hermione nodded her head as she walked back to George's bed. She flopped down on her stomach; she pulled her skirt down before she picked the notebook back up again.

Her feet were crossed over each other swaying in the air behind her, she rested her head in one hand while the other flipped through the pages. Lee was sitting crossed legged on the ground in front of the cauldron stirring as the potion changed colours. That's how Fred found them a few minutes later. Fred looked confused to their best friend and Hermione in their dorm, before a grin creeped up on his face.

"Oi, Georgie." He called over his shoulder, making Lee and Hermione jump, noticing Fred in the doorway for the first time. "Did you leave a bird in your bed without telling me?" Fred's voice full of mirth.

"What are you on about?" George's voice came before his head popped up besides his twin. "Oh, and lovely bird it is." George grinned as he spotted Hermione. George pushed his twin aside so he could step in the room. "Hey, Hermione." He said walking over. "What are you two doing in here?" He asked as he placed his broom against the wall and hopped next to Hermione on his bed. Fred put his broom down too and sat down on his bed pulling off his shoes.

"I needed to finish this remember." Lee said pointing at the potion.

"Hermione... Is that our notebook about our inventions?" George asked as he looked at the book in front of her.

"Uhm, yeah. Sorry." Hermione blushed as she pushed the book to George.

"No, need to be sorry Hermione." Lee said before he looked to the twins. "Hermione solved the problem."

"Really?" The twins' voices chorused as they jumped off the bed and looked down at the cauldron.

"How sure are you?" Fred asked looking over his shoulder to the girl on his brother's bed.

"Have you met me?" Hermione cocked an eyebrow.

"Right." Fred answered with a grin. Fred grabbed a bag of sweets from his trunk and popped one in his mouth. Hermione's eyes widened at his recklessness; Fred's skin began to cover itself with green patches as he started to scratch himself like crazy. Lee filled a pipette with the potion and quickly handed it over to George. George walked over to Fred and let a few drops fall into his mouth. A few seconds passed in silence, only the sound of Fred's scratching filled the room before the itching stopped and the green patches disappeared.

"Hermione!" George rounded fast. "You absolute genius!" He leaned down, grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her cheek sloppily. Hermione pulled a face as she wiped the sloppy kiss of her cheek, before a smile spread across her face. "How?"

"Leave out the bat spleen, it actually causes it to last longer and add Lavender."

The twins looked at each other wild-eyed before they said. "Lavender! How did we not think of it!" They both slapped the front of their heads. Hermione had rolled herself of the bed and stood behind the twins. She raised her arms, and both slapped them on the back of their heads. Lee chuckled in amusement as the twins turned astonished to Hermione.

"What was that for?!" They called out, rubbing their heads where she had hit them.

"For testing on yourselves, you dum-dums."

"Oh." They whispered.

"How else do we now if it works or not?" Fred shrugged.

"And uhm, dum-dums?" George chuckled.

"Well." Hermione ignored George. "You won't be testing anything on yourself until you pass it through me first, do you understand?" She pointed to each on in the room.

"Little Granger, it's not that bad-"

"We never had any lasting damages, and worst-case scenario, the effects wears off after a couple of days."

"How long did you have the green rash the last time?" She looked between the three, not knowing which one had tried it out.

"Two days." George replied, as he subconsciously started scratching his chest. "It just wore off this morning, we've been trying to find an antidote for the last week."

"See! You've just proven my point."

"She could really help." Lee chimed in as he bottled the potion and stood up. "She fixed this in the last twenty minutes." He handed the potion to George.

The twins looked at each other, probably doing that weird twin speak thing again. Leaving Hermione and Lee standing between them in the quiet room.

"Alright." George said with a smile.

"But no comments on the products we make." Fred added quickly.

"Fine, no comments."

"Promise?"

"Promise. Do you need a pinkie swear?" She said holding out her pinkie. The three boys looked at her like she just lost her mind. "It's a muggle thing. You just lock your pinkie with mine and the promise is made. It's silly really, just for little kids, but..." She shrugged, lowering her hand.

"Well, we are little kids." Fred laughed as held out his pinkie. Hermione rolled her eyes as she locked hers with his. Then she repeated it with the two other boys.


HG


The full group was finally together again in the common room as practice was cancelled due to a huge storm that was blazing right outside the window, lightning enlightened the common room every few minutes.

While the others were playing exploding snap in front of the fire, Hermione was falling asleep on Katie's shoulder, the thunder sounded like a lullaby to her.
But her eyes shot open when the topic of the Halloween dance came up.

"So, do you all have a date? The dance is in two days." Katie asked the others as she flipped a card on the table in front of her.

"I asked Lena, from Hufflepuff." Lee said rubbing his neck, even on his dark skin you could see the blush on his cheeks.

"And?" The twins inquired, leaning forward, very interested in the new development.

"She said yes of course." Hermione huffed at the boys as she grinned wide at Lee, who shot her a wink. She was so happy Lee had found a date. Just like she thought, there were girls who would've said yes in a heartbeat. Lee had asked the girl right after Herbology at the end of the day and she immediately said yes. She was hoping he would ask her since the day the announcement was put on the board. Lee came running in the library that night and twirled Hermione around, both a wide smile on their faces.

"Hermione's right, she said yes." He said as he turned to the twins. The twins shot up and high-fived their best friend. The girls all snickered at the boys' silly ways. "What about you two, dweeps?"

"We've been more... selective." George said carefully, his eyes shot towards Hermione, thinking about their previous failed dates. "After considering our options-"

"We decided to go stag." Fred clapped his hands excitedly. "That way we're not pinned down by one girl that evening and we can explore our options that night."

"Pour girls." Angelina laughed, all the others joined besides George and Hermione. Hermione only chuckled a little, but she knew what the twins had gone through and hard they actually took it. "I'm -" Angelina started again; her eyes flickered to Katie for a split second. "I'm going with Oscar."

Oscar was a fourth year Gryffindor, very smart, one of the top students of his year and quite handsome as well. That was certainly Alicia's thought as the girl screamed in excitement.

"Oh, Ange. I'm so jealous." Alicia sighed.

"Who are you going with?" Hermione asked.

"Gavin."

"Cedric's Gavin?" Hermione asked surprised. Alicia nodded at her. "He's a great guy, you're going to have so much fun." She smiled at her friend.

"You two are going to have fun too, that night." Fred interjected with a wide grin.

Hermione and Katie turned their heads to look at them. "What do you mean?"

But they didn't get an answer, the only thing they received back were two large grins at the almost identical faces of the two Weasley brothers. Oh boy, what did they do?


HG


I hope you're still enjoying Hermione's second year at Hogwarts 😊

This year will contain 34 chapters, in case you were wondering 😉

Just a quick thank you for everyone who's reading this and writing a review, it means the world to me! 😊