No problem, Harry. You're one of us now, practically my brother. And what else are sisters for, than to provide emotional support?" I said, yawning, before promptly falling asleep again.
What should we do today?" My father asked as Harry and I raced each other into the kitchen. He was standing at the stove, clearly burning something- again. I grinned at Harry and put a finger to my lips to signal him to keep quiet. I tiptoed over to one of the cabinets by the fridge, and opened it as silently as I could.
Alas, the hinges squeaked and Dad turned around.
"What are you doing?" He asked and I smiled sheepishly, grabbing out two boxes of cereal.
"Oh posh. I'm not that bad of a cook." He said, waving the spatula around. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"The last time you tried to cook something, you set the water on fire."
"How is that possible?" Harry asked. I shrugged.
"Don't ask me. I'm not the one who got ice cream stuck to the ceiling." I said while putting the boxes on the table. My father sighed and dumped the charred mass of something into the trash bin.
"So. What shall we do to occupy our time?" He asked again. I hummed in thought as I poured some milk in my bowl.
"How about we go to Diagon Alley?" I asked.
"Can we go to a quidditch shop?" Harry asked excitedly.
"Oh! Could I bring Hermione? I want to show her some of the best book shops!" I said.
"Calm down, calm down. That all sounds fine to me." He said, and I whooped, jumping up.
"Only if you sit down and finish your breakfast first."
"Dang it."
About an hour later, we had picked up Hermione and arrived in Diagon Alley.
"Where to first?" My Dad asked.
"Book shop!" Hermione and I yelled, as Harry yelled,
"Quidditch shop!"
"Alright, howabout Hermione and Rita go to the bookshop and then meet us at the Quidditch shop when they're done?"
I turned to Hermione, grinning.
"Sounds good to me!" I grabbed her elbow and dragged her off down the walkway.
"Wow! I've never seen this book shop!" Hermione explained as we stood outside my favorite shop- Books For The Muggle-Loving Soul.
"It's the best. Has all the greatest Muggle books- Well, I think." I explained, pushing the door open.
The smell of old and new books hit us as we stepped through.
"Oh! There are so many wonderful books!" Hermione said excitedly.
I showed her around, pointing out my favorite ones, and she showed me hers. We left the shop with two stacks of books.
We went and met up with Harry and my father, and looked around at some of the new broom models.
After that, we went and got lunch and ice cream at Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor. Once we finished there we dropped Hermione off at home with her books and then continued on back to our house.
"Harry, Rita, would you two go up the road a ways to the Muggle convience store? I have a list of things I need for dinner tonight." My father said, handing me a wad of paper and handing Harry some Muggle money.
"Er... only if you let Harry and I cook it." I said. My dad laughed and nodded in agreement, and we were off. When we got to the shop, I got a little distracted by all of the sweets at the front.
"Come on Rita, we don't have all day." Harry said, leading me over to the cold section with all the fruits and vegetables.
"Okay, so we need green beans and carrots. Does this look like it says squash to you?" I asked, handing him the paper. He squinted at it and shrugged.
"Let's get one just in case."
I nodded in agreement and grabbed a squash. We made it into a game to see who could read my dad's hand writing and get the item first, and before long we had checked out and were racing back home.
"Haha, I won!" I yelled victoriously as I opened the door and charged inside. Harry came in after, panting.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. That means you get to cook the food!" He said, laughing.
"Dang it."
The rest of the summer was more or less the same: Harry and I would go to the Weasley's and play quidditch and sometimes Hermione would come, or Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I would go on trips to different Muggle and magic shops. My birthday came and passed; I got some more books and new clothes (seeing as how I had pretty much put holes in all my old ones).
For Harry's birthday, we had a huge surprise party at the Burrow. I got him a new broom care kit, Ron got him some tricks from Zonko's (at the advice of Fred and George), and Hermione got him some books. Quite obviously.
Fred, George, and I started a prank war, making different alliances between the three of us to get one of the others. We may have accidentally blown up my attic...
but that's a story for another time.
I didn't grow anymore this summer, which is to be expected because the last time I grew was the summer before second year- when I grew a foot and a half somehow. I still don't know how that happened. Unfortantely for me, Ron grew again so now he was about an inch taller than me, and Harry was starting to catch up. Pretty soon I wouldn't be the tallest anymore. At least Hermione was still about five inches shorter than me.
We all got our Hogwarts letters three weeks before the first of September, and went on a large trip to Diagon Alley the next day. On the list was dress robes, so Hermione and I went dress shopping.
Let me tell you, it was downright Godawful.
We left that shop with a dress each. Hermione had a long, ruffled and poofy periwinkle dress, and I had a straight, long champagne colored dress. We met back up with the Weasleys, Harry, and my father before going to get all of our books.
All in all, it was one of the best summers I've had in a long time.