A Sirens Song

Chapter 2

Amos Diggory and his son arrived home shortly after leaving the portkey there near the burrow. "Say Cedric," his father asked, "I noticed you spent an awful lot of time watching Miss Granger. She's a fourth year is she not?"

"Yes she house mates with Harry and the Weasley's," Cedric said, "what about it?"

"Well I noticed that you were flirting with her a bit," his father said, "have a crush do we?"

"Would it be a problem to have a crush on a fourth year, who just happens to be Muggleborn and the smartest witch her age?"

"Your mother and I would have no problem with you choosing a Muggleborn witch, weather she be younger or older than you," his father said, "I'm only asking because I don't want you to jump into anything to fast, remember she's young, only 13 going on 14."

"I understand father," Cedric said.

"Now we should go inside, and tell you mother the lesser horrible points of the night, and get the dressing down over with," his father said.

Cedric followed his father into the house, he thought about the witch that he met, and the Weasley's that he had met, and needless to say he was intrigued. 'There's just something about her,' he thought to himself. Coming face to face with his mother made him temporarily forget about the little witch that he had met this morning.

...

Hermione was at odds, here she was sitting at the dinner table at the Weasley's waiting patiently for Mrs. Weasley, the Patron and Mother of all Weasley children (in the house at the time, and some not in the house.) to stop hyperventilating, and fussing about everything that could have gone wrong.

She didn't dare role her eyes, or huff in annoyance, at Mrs. Weasley. Hermione herself was a bit shaken after the nights events. You think that with hanging out with Harry Potter, The-Boy-That-Lived, that she would be used to it by now. After all over the past 3 years, had they not faced some sort of challenge and came out triumphant? Although the altercation they had with the Weeping Willow would possible curb her wish to fly again anytime soon. So didn't it seem to reason that perhaps what they had been through tonight wasn't the worst that they had been through? To some¸ (namely Molly Weasley,) it didn't.

Molly paced the kitchen; it reminded Hermione of the book she read over the summer, 'Pride and Prejudice'. Molly reminded her of Mrs. Bennet in a lot of ways, namely the being worried for her children, (although in an entirely different way).

"Tell me again exactly what happened," Molly said, "I want to hear every detail, start off with what tipped you off to the danger."

Between the six of them they managed to relay a play-by-play, of the goings on from earlier in the evening.

Molly looked over everyone sitting at the table; she had allowed them to clean up before subjecting them to questioning. Some of the Order was still sitting there in the kitchen watching Molly question everyone in turn. Needless to say the woman would have made a fierce cross examiner for the defense of any legal case.

"Molly dear," Arthur said, "I think it's time we let the kids go to bed. We've been over what happened at least five times already. The details won't change no matter how many times we relay to you what happened."

"I know," she said, "I just want to be sure we went over it well enough."

"And we have Molly Wobbles," Arthur said, "Now let's let the children go to bed."

"I want to say something before you send them to their beds," Moody said cutting in before they had a chance to scamper off to bed, "this is directed mostly at Miss Granger; but you should all listen to what I'm about to say."

When they all nodded in agreement, he started talking again, "What Miss granger did was not only very brave; but very stupid. She could have been seriously hurt, but she paid attention to what was going on around her and managed to save a life. Miss granger you say you used rocks, why would you use rocks, you could have used your wand it would have been ok to do so."

"I don't know, it didn't occur to me until after that I could have used my wand. Rocks were the first thing that came to mind getting their attention off the boy." Hermione rambled on in a slight panic, "I didn't use it cause not only was I thinking that I'D get into trouble and possibly get expelled for underage magic. I thought that there are other ways to distract them. So I threw some socks at them to get their attention. I didn't realize that they were just looking for someone to hurt that I started running, because they had started chasing me."

"That was foolish," moody said, "You should have just let him be. It's not like you knew him, you'll probably never see the boy again."

"That doesn't matter," Hermione said suddenly angry at this man in front of her, "it doesn't matter if I don't see him again, what matters is that I did what I hope and pray that someone else would have the decency to do were I in the same situation. I would have felt bad leaving him there and not helping him. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but it's done, so best to drop it."

"Alright Miss Granger," Moody said his laugh harsh "you'll do, you'll do."

"Alright," Mrs. Weasley said giving into her husband, "off to bed with you now, I'll see you in the morning after you've had a good night's rest."

The group of them trudged up to bed, the girls to Ginny's room, Harry followed Ron to His, and George and Fred went to theirs. They all fell into bed simultaneously, all nodding off and finally asleep before ten minutes were up.

After the order left, Molly pulled Arthur into their bedroom, locked the door, and put up a silencing charm. She then proceeded to do a thorough checking over to be sure he was all in one piece. It's safe to say that they slept in way past normal waking times at the Burrow that next morning.

...

Hermione was awakened the next morning by pounding on the bedroom door, "Wake up," Ron called, "you two are the only ones still asleep."

"Go away," Ginny called, "we're sleeping in here."

"You need to get up," Ron said, "Mom and Dad are still in bed, and someone needs to make breakfast, so get up."

"Go make it yourself and quit pounding on the door," Hermione called.

"But I don't know how to cook," Ron moaned.

"Then I suggest you learn," Hermione called, "now go away, we're tired."

"But, we're boys," Ron said, "everyone knows that boys don't know how to cook."

"Sounds like a personal problem Ronald," Hermione said from under her pillow loud enough for him to hear; "now I suggest you stop bothering us and go bother someone else. Better yet consult a self-help book. I'm sure there are some Cooking for dummies books somewhere."

"'Mione your being impossible," Ron said.

That was the last straw, Hermione got up from her resting place. She unlocked the door and reached it open, "Ronald Weasley I will give you to the count of five to shut your mouth and move away from the door before I resort to drastic muggle methods of shutting you up."

"'Mione, you look horrible," Ron said.

"One," she said starting the count off, when he still hadn't moved, "two, Three, Four." It wasn't until she had gotten to four and started moving forward clenching her fists that he started to realize the severity of the situation. Before she counted the last digit she turned to her trunk and pulled out a role of Duct-Tape. He just stood there watching her, mouth wide open.

"What are you going to do with that?" he asked.

"FIVE," she said, then all of a sudden she went from being angry to Happy, scary happy.

"Ron," Harry said from behind him, "I suggest you run."

"Why what is that stuff?" Ron asked.

"Never mind forget I said anything," Harry said, "Ron, I would run if I were you. Happy Hunting 'Mione."

Harry stepped back out of the way to let Hermione through, she started pulling on whatever it was that she had in her hand unrolling it. Ginny looked at Harry confused, "what is that stuff Harry?"

"It's something Muggles call Tape," Harry said, "We use it to keep things together; it can also be used as a quieting and or binding device."

"Sounds horrid," Ginny said, "what's it called?"

"Duct-tape," Harry said.

"Wow," Ginny said, "you think she'll tie him up? After all he did wake us up. I mean it's not like he couldn't figure something out for himself to eat right? What time is it anyways?"

"I'd say it's about 9:30," Harry said.

"It's too early," Ginny said, "I'm going back to bed."

"Good night," Harry said, "I'll make sure she doesn't cut off his air circulation."

"Sounds good," Ginny said.

Ginny true to her word went back to her bed and passed out right away, after all she was up until about 3am.

Harry followed the sounds of commotion into the kitchen area. He thought he had seen everything, but what he saw when he walked into the kitchen threw him off completely. There was Ron hand taped to his thighs, arms taped to his sides. She had him bound to the chair, tape covered his mouth. She was decent enough to have some kind of fabric under the tape so it didn't rip his skin off. Except for his mouth, she couldn't figure out how to get the tape to stay with fabric to soften the blow, so she put the tape as lightly over his mouth as possible. She was standing behind his chair; tape in hand, an evil glint in her eyes. "Now next time we ask you to leave us because we're tired, will you listen?" she lowered her head so that she was speaking directly into his ear.

He nodded his head yes, and tried to say something, but it came out as humming sounds. "Sorry Ronald what was that," she asked, as she moved from one side of chair to the other, "I couldn't quite understand what it was you're trying to say."

His hung down towards his chest in defeat, "remember this," Hermione said. Looking up she saw Harry and the twins gaping at her, "Oh hello Harry, George, Fred. I'm going back to bed before I'm to awake to go back to bed. Be a dear and wait a while before you release him. After all I did ask nicely and I did give him the chance to leave us be before I took action." and with that she headed up towards Ginny's room. She handed Harry the tape as she passed by.

When she got up to the room and inside she immediately flopped back down on the bed and promptly fell back asleep.

Now the idea of taping Ron up and going back to bed had merit; but it was a wasted effort. Because no more than 30 minutes later, they were being told to come down for breakfast.

Ginny and Hermione trudged down the stairs half asleep; they glared at Ron begrudgingly who was still taped to the chair. Ginny stopped and took a second look, "Hermione what did you do to Ron? Ginny asked, "It's so quiet, shouldn't you release him?"

"You think he's learned his lesson?" Hermione asked.

"Doubtful," Ginny said, "perhaps you should wait till we've eaten to release him, that way we actually get something to eat."

"What do you think Harry?" Hermione asked still half asleep.

"I think he's learned not to cross you again Hermione," Harry said, "Why don't you release him?"

She looked towards Molly and Arthur, for conformation, "Let him go dear," Molly said, "you can always bind him again if he doesn't listen."

"Sounds like a good plan," Hermione said, "thanks Mrs. Weasley."

"You're quite welcome dear," Molly said.

Hermione trudged over to Ron, and ripped the tape off his mouth, "BLOODY HELL!" he yelled, "did you have to tear it off like that?"

"Actually it would have hurt worse to pull the tape off slowly," Hermione said as she finished untying him. She turned around to walk back to the table, when he did something she didn't expect. He tackled her to the floor, and started tickling her. She laughed and screamed for him to stop, and wiggled trying to get away. After about what seemed like forever; but in all reality was only 5 minutes she begged for mercy. "Mercy, Mercy," she cried, when he didn't stop, Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder and told him to stop.

"It's a muggle custom to either call 'Uncle' or 'Mercy' to end the game," Harry said, "you can forgive him this time Hermione he didn't know about that."

She laid there giggling on the floor, "its ok," she said trying to take a deep breath to calm herself down.

Fred and George sat and watched her lay there on the floor. She was glowing from the confrontation, and they thought she was beautiful. Her hair was spread out around her, her skin was all aglow and her eyes were sparkling like diamonds. 'She's beautiful,' they thought to themselves.

Harry and Ron helped her up from the floor, "Come on," Harry said, "let's eat."

Later towards the end of the meal, Bill and Percy walked through the door. "Hello all," bill said.

"Good morning," Molly and Arthur said.

"It's oddly quiet," Bill said, "did we miss something?"

"Hermione bound Ron to a kitchen chair with some kind of muggle bonding contraption, called 'Tape," Arthur said, "apparently he tried to wake the girls up this morning to cook him breakfast because your Mother and I were still asleep."

"Really Hermione," bill said, "I'm surprised at you."

"He brought it on himself," Hermione said in her own defense, "if he had been quiet and left us alone when we asked him the first time he would have been fine. But he made me count to five, and didn't take the hint."

"You seem in an awfully good mood Ronald," Percy said.

"Well I got her back," Ron said with a huge smile on his face, "I tickled her until she begged me to stop, I think it's only fair seeing as she left me taped up to go back to sleep."

"Yes I dare say that the scales are still even in the result of this morning's events," Percy said, "to bad I missed it."

"We heard some of last night's events, this morning after getting into work," Bill said on a more serious note, "we wanted to be sure that everyone was all right."

"We're all fine," Arthur said.

"We heard from Moody, what happened," Percy said, "I'm glad you're all safe."

Bill and Percy looked at Hermione, they both smiled at her. 'They know,' Fred thought, 'or they like her.'

Leaning forward Fred put his arm around her shoulders all protective like. She looked up and turned to look at him. She took her hand and patted his hand, "it's alright Fred," Hermione said.

"You really should be more careful," he said, "you could have gotten hurt."

"Yeah 'Mione," George said, "don't scare us like that again."

"Moody told me you ran into a spot of trouble last night" Bill said sitting down at the table across from the twins, "you have to be more careful."

"I know," Hermione said, "but I would have felt bad if I hadn't tried to help."

"We know," Fred said, "mum was a bit worried about what happened."

"I wanted to be sure I had the whole story so that I could work through it," Molly said, "thought maybe there was some clue as to who it was or could be."

"Don't worry mum," Ginny said, "we understand, you love us."

"Of course, I do dear," Molly said, "would do anything to protect my cubs, grown or not. Mine or not, that goes for you two as well. Hermione, Harry, I consider you one of my own."

"Then shall we call you mum," Hermione asked.

"Oh, I would be delighted dear," Molly beamed.

"Alright then," Hermione said, "mum."

"Hermione," Ginny said in a lower voice, "that makes us sisters."

"Oh I've always wanted a sister," Hermione beamed.

Fred and George didn't want to think of her as a sister, but they weren't ready to reveal that they liked her as someone worth dating.

Bill could see that something was up with the twins; they looked uncomfortable with the conversation. He thought for a minute that he saw them both wince when she called Ginny sister. 'Must be my imagination,' Bill thought.

Percy sat and watched Hermione out of the corner of his eye. He remembered when he first met her at the sorting ceremony her first year. She had bushy hair and her teeth were too large for her mouth. He remembered what she looked like in her second and third year, she hadn't changed much. It was as though he was seeing her for the first time today. Though he always knew she was a girl, she had always seemed like one of the boys since the Troll incident in her first year.

After breakfast was over, Percy and Bill headed out, they promised to stop by again before the week was out.

The rest of the summer was spent outside, mostly. Hermione laid on a blanked either reading or watching everyone else play Quidditch. Sometimes she could be caught napping under a shade tree that stood near The Borrow. Sometimes they would swim in the lake that was nearby; sometimes Hermione would sunbathe while the others played in the water. After two weeks of light hearted joy and laughter, the time came for everyone to shove off to Platform 9¾ to catch the train to Hogwarts.

"What adventures do you think we'll encounter this year Harry?" Hermione asked, as they found an empty compartment.

"I'm hoping for a quiet year," Harry said, "I've had enough excitement to last a while."

"Yes I suppose a quiet year would be nice," Hermione said, "I imagine I could study some more, perhaps take up knitting or something."

"Personally I hope that the year is exciting," Ron said, walking into the compartment and sitting down. "How about you Neville?"

"I don't know," he said thinking about it, "on one hand it would be neat to have a DADA teacher that knows their stuff, and I suppose we could do with some excitement. If it's possible I'D like to hope for a non-dangerous year. For some reason I always get hit, or poked by something."

"Alright," Hermione said, "nothing to exciting, but I'm telling you after the last three years, I think it'll be hard to top all the excitement and upheaval we've had."

"Well shall we seal our hopes for a semi-quiet year, with plenty of excitement for Ron, Puzzles to solve for Hermione, and some peace and quiet for Neville and I. Shall we complete this wish with some candy from the trolley?" Harry asked.

"Sure," everyone said at the same time. When the trolley stopped at their compartment Harry, treated everyone to some liquorish wands and some chocolate frogs. They each took a piece of candy and then ate the piece, thus completing their wishes for the year.

They would find out at dinner that not only would the year be possibly quiet, but it would be full of excitement for others.

It's just too bad that the group of four wouldn't know until about 6 weeks later that they were in for even bigger trouble and misery than they had bargained for.

A/N: I tried to make this chapter longer but it just seemed the best to end it here. Didn't want to make Hermione saving the guy seem more important than it was, I wanted to concentrate on the danger she could have gotten in and the attraction she has from some of the people around her. All shall be revealed but probably not until way later in the story… aren't I evil?