Chapter One: Daydream Charms
Summary: Hermione's sixth year isn't going to plan. She finds every second of every day filled with stress, that is until an unassuming Fred Weasley sends her a letter asking if she's tried out one of their patented Daydream Charms. Rated M for later chapters.
Disclaimer: Nothing but the plot is my own
Notes: The first half of this chapter has a lot of dialogue from the book but that stops pretty quickly.
Hermione pushed herself to the front of a gaggle of squealing witches to a large display. "Patented Daydream Charms…" She read squinting through her freshly bruised eye, an unwelcome gift from a Weasley brand punching telescope. The back of the brightly colored box featured a ridiculous caricature of a handsome man and a swooning girl standing on a glittering pirate ship. "One simple incantation and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic, thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable. Side effects include vacant expression and minor drooling. Not for sale to under-sixteens." She smirked, cocking an eyebrow, She had forgotten that the twins, as silly as they may be, were incredibly talented wizards. " You know," she said smiling up at Harry "that really is extraordinary magic!" "For that, Hermione, you can have that one for free." She looked up at a beaming Fred wearing flamboyant magenta robes. He and Harry exchanged pleasantries as Hermione, smiling, tucked the box away in her purse. "And what's happened to your eye, Hermione?" Fred winced looking at her swollen, purple eye. "Your punching telescope." She growled. "Oh blimey, I forgot about those," He pulled a tub out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Just dab it on, that bruise'll be gone within the hour, we had to find a decent bruise remover. We're testing most of our products on ourselves." Hermione opened the tub and grimaced at the thick yellow paste inside. "It is safe, isn't it?" "Course it is" said Fred with a wicked grin. "Come on, Harry, I'll give you a tour." sweeping Harry into the crowd, leaving her to gently dab the paste onto her eye. Hermione decided she would trust the twins with her eye, as she turned her attention back to the daydream charms. How they did it was beyond her, she felt her mind moving at a million meters per hour. Was it an illusion charm? Maybe they had tweaked the dreamless sleep potion, changing induce vivid dreams. Could they have charmed it to have the users imagination become more vivid?
" You know, Hermione, I can see your giant brain at work from across the store." She looked over to see Ginny had squeezed her way next to her. "Why not just admire the twin's handiwork for once and imagine being in the muscular arms of Elfric the Eager or whichever old decrepit historian that keeps you up at night." laughed Ginny "Oh that is nasty!" Hermione hit the redhead on the arm. " You know what I would daydream about? A certain boy who lived whisking me off to some sunkissed beach where the stupid dark lord isn't a problem." she joked. Hermione smiled at her, she knew Ginny still had quite a crush on Harry. However after a talk they had early last year,she had convinced the young girl to try dating other people to get her mind off of him. And although she was happily dating Dean, she often made jokes about her "unrequited love." Ginny sighed dramatically as she grabbed a box from the display. " How much is this anyway?" Hermione reached over and took the box from Ginny's grip and placed it back onto the shelf. "Last time I checked you were under sixteen." said Hermione, amused. " I know! I know! But even if it is a dream, its would be sooo great to get a piece of that sweet a-"
Ginny was cut off by Fred's booming voice "Haven't you girls found our special WonderWitch products yet?" Hermione looked up at Fred and Harry now making their way towards them "Follow me, ladies…" Fred brought them towards a window filled bottles and charms in various shades of pink surrounded by a group of shrill young witches, giggling enthusiastically. Ginny and Hermione looked at each other, warily. "There you go," said Fred proudly. "Best range of love potions you'll find anywhere." The girls cautiously approached the display and picked up the little heart shaped bottles. "Do they work?" asked Ginny to her brother. "Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question… " At which point George had appeared at his twin's side and finished "... and the attractiveness of the girl," Hermione rolled her eyes at this. "But we're not selling them to our sister." He said sternly. This incited a discussion about Ginny's dating habits, to which the young redhead in question seemed incredibly bored by. Hermione followed Ginny as she moved from table to table, finally landing near a cage labelled Pygmy Puffs. Hermione watched in amusement as Ginny told off the twins and turned on Ron who had just stumbled over carrying far more merchandise than he could ever need. Hermione moved to stand near Harry while Ron and twins started bickering, which came to an abrupt stop once their mother had appeared. As the Weasleys talked amongst themselves, Harry had caught sight of Draco Malfoy and Hermione found herself being swept up in another one of Harry's escapades.
The rest of week had flown by uneventfully after this. Hermione lay staring at the ceiling of Ginny's room. She had finished packing days earlier than the others and found that she had time to think about the events of their impromptu scouting mission. Theories about Malfoy, the conversation they overheard in Knockturn alley, and her "rubbish attempt" to talk to Mr. Borgin (according to Ron) was swirling in her mind. She loved and respected Harry, but sometimes he could get overly paranoid. She understood that Malfoy was, in fact, acting suspiciously, but all he had really done was have a conversation. She definitely could not understand why this would lead Harry to suspect Malfoy was a Death Eater.
When she wasn't listening to one of Harry's rants on what Malfoy was up to for the umpteenth time, she and Ron were constantly bickering with each other. When she had found out that she would spend the rest of the summer in the Burrow, her heart couldn't help but skip a beat. She knew since fourth year that she had feelings for Ronald, but it seemed the closer they got, the more irritated they became with each other. That thought itself made her heart sink. Mrs. Weasley's booming voice broken her from her thoughts, she called for everyone to load up the cars that the ministery had sent. Hermione got up from the spare bed, lured Cruickshanks into her traveling basket, and did a once over of the room to check if she had forgotten anything. A colorful box sitting on Ginny's bedside table caught her eye. She hesitated for a second before deciding to bring the Daydream Charm with her, quickly stashing it in her bag before making her way down to awaiting cars below.
Hermione collapsed into her four poster bed, rubbing her face in her hands. Exhausted couldn't begin to cover how she was feeling. She had just come from the Great Hall where she heard from a grim Harry about what had happened on the train and why he had come so late to dinner, covered in blood. Her head was aching. She had really been looking forward to this year, even though the Order was in high alert due to the events of the past year. She was looking forward to coming into her own as a prefect and she though she would never admit it to the others, she was quite excited to become an N. E. W. T student. She had also secretly hoped that this was the year that she and Ron would finally get together. Instead she couldn't help but feel immensely guilty for leaving Harry behind on the train, she was irritated by the continuous stream of students who kept asking about 'the Chosen One.' Lastly and most painfully, she had argued with Ron from the moment they got on the train to the moment she left to the girls dormitory. Her eyes welled up with tears thinking about it. Why did he always have to find something about her to complain about. All she had done was mention that she was excited to do rounds together and he took it as her trying to control his schedule. The arguing only got worse from there. He basically refused to talk to her during dinner. That is,until a worse-for-wear Harry showed up.
She heard the sounds of footsteps leading up to the dormitory and quickly drew the curtains around her four poster. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil entered the room giggling about their seemingly endless stream of inane gossip. She had definitely heard Ron's name during the conversation before they suddenly changed the conversation to hushed tones. Hermione had acutely noticed Lavender eyeing Ron far too many time over dinner. It seemed she had made it a point to laugh at every single one of his terrible jokes. Irritation flooded her chest and she quickly cast a silencing charm on the curtains. She closed her eyes and thought back to the Burrow and how she and Ginny would stay up late into the night. Ginny used to tell her all the time that she shouldn't worry, it was common news that Ron had feelings for her. That at the end of the day Hermione and Ron were meant to be. But judging by the way Ron beamed at Lavender tonight, she was starting to doubt that fact. With that miserable thought in mind she turned over and fell into a restless sleep.