New and improved version of chapter 2, here for your enjoyment :D
After discerning that none of her friends were in the house, Hermione headed out to the backyard. On the one hand, she was curious how the boys would react to her, having not heard anything from her for the whole summer, but on the other, she was a bit apprehensive. Miss Weasley most certainly hadn't been very receptive to the physical changes.
Stepping out of the house, she was met with a rather common sight at the Burrow; four boys zipping around in the air, passing around a quaffle and trying to score through one of the hoops of shiny light hovering on each far end of the backyard. The hoops were an addition of the last few years, since the twins were able to cast magic freely. Before that, they had just drawn the edges of the hoops' location in the dirt on the floor. Not surprisingly, that had resulted in countless fights regarding whether someone had really scored or not.
"Hermione!"
The twins spotted her standing off to the side first and zoomed down to her, enveloping her in a not-entirely-appropriate hug, in response to which she swatted their hands away with a laugh. "Well you two are still randy bastards, I see. What would Angelina say, Fred?"
"I just can't help myself, Hermione, you look irresistible. I love the new hair!" The twin in question didn't look in the slightest bit apologetic and she couldn't help another wide smile in response. That smile faltered, however, when her eyes landed on the two boys that had joined them in the meantime. Harry looked a bit awkward, but happy to see her, whereas Ron's eyes were swirling with anger at the exchange he had just witnessed.
I'll need to take care of this soon.
Harry very briefly hugged her, but his eyes lit up with laughter when she pulled him in and crushed him to her. "I missed you, you dork! You owe me a proper hug after the whole summer apart, wouldn't you say?" She tried to ignore Ron's death glare aimed at her right over his best friend's shoulder.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Holidays look good on you, Hermione. Want to go inside for some lemonade and catch up?" He seemed carefree and was either ignoring or oblivious to the tension between her and Ron that was growing by the second.
"Later maybe. Miss Weasley asked me to find Ginny; do any of you know where she might be?"
It was extremely disconcerting to see how quickly the smiles dropped off their faces. They exchanged a few uncomfortable looks before George spoke up. "She's probably flying out in the field."
Hermione was silent for a few moments, trying to decide if it was in walking distance or not, which the boys mistook for confusion. "Do you need someone to show you the way?" George kindly offered, but Ron quickly jumped in. "Well obviously she does, so let's all savour the moment when the know-it-all actually doesn't know something."
Everyone turned shocked expressions on Ron, clearly not having expected such animosity, except for Harry who just looked resigned.
"Actually, Ron, I do know where it is. Would one of you lend me a broom? I find myself suddenly wanting to leave this company as soon as possible." She and Ron were now locked in a glaring match which was interrupted by Harry offering her his Firebolt. "Thank you so much. It's reassuring to know some people still have manners."
Without further ado, she straddled the broom and kicked off, not wanting to show the boys how scared she was at the moment. She would not give Ron the pleasure. When she was out of sight, hidden by the house, Hermione allowed her proud posture to slump and hands to grip onto the handle like her life depended on it, slowing down almost to a walking pace.
She had certainly not expected such hostility from Ron and to have flying added to that made the usually nerve-wracking experience downright terrifying for Hermione. Why do I still let him get to me like that? I'm better than this. Taking deep, calming breaths, she managed to slow down her heart back to a normal pace and resumed flying towards her destination at a more efficient speed.
Hermione knew what the so- called 'field' was supposed to be, but she'd never been, so it took some time before she found it. It was a relatively big grassy clearing in the middle of the sparse forest near the Burrow, with three wooden hoops on each side; a homemade Quidditch field. Even though it wasn't far away, the Weasleys only used it when the oldest two brothers were home, enabling them to make proper teams. The backyard was big enough otherwise.
As George had predicted, Ginny was there, her shirt drenched with sweat, alerting Hermione that the girl must have been flying in the scorching sun for quite some time. Instead of calling out immediately, she hovered by the side and just watched her work. She was zooming through the air on her broom, doing manoeuvres that looked impressive even to Hermione, who honestly couldn't care less about Quidditch. Ginny moved with the ease and grace of a bird in the air and it looked mesmerizing. Hermione had only ever seen flying like that that at the final of the World Cup in her fourth year.
After a minute or two, she decided that she'd done quite enough creeping for the day and called out to Ginny. Startled, the girl whipped her head around and stopped in the middle of her exercise. She flew closer but immediately ground to a halt when she was close enough to talk her visitor, surprise written all over her face.
"Hermione? Wow, I didn't even recognise you from afar. You look... different." Her eyes were roaming over her, taking in all the changes in appearance. Ginny lingered on the short hair, but then continued on to take in her long, tanned legs exposed by the dress that had ridden up quite high due to riding the broom. The younger girl's cheeks reddened with the signature Weasley blush with the realisation of just how much she was ogling her friend.
Her eyes returning to Hermione's face and noticing a slightly annoyed expression, she quickly elaborated. "Different in a very good way, Hermione. The hair looks amazing, but I have to tell you, you have some balls. People will ask questions, you know? Wizards can be kind of old fashioned like that."
"Tell me about it. Your mother had to practically pick her jaw up off the floor when she saw me before not so subtly implying that I look like a lesbian. Thanks a bunch!" Her face was split by a big grin though, betraying that she was in fact in high spirits, happy to be seeing her friend again.
"I know, she can be so old-fashioned. Believe me, it's not easy being her daughter, and the boys have it way easier. But on another note, am I seeing things or are you really flying right now?"
The sound that Hermione produced in reply was a mix of a cough and a high pitched, nervous laugh, as if she just now remembered that they were still in the air. "Uh,okay, could we land, actually? I'm not really comfortable right now." She looked much more confident when her feet were firmly on the ground. "But yes, I had to escape your brother as fast as possible. If looks could kill..."
The mention of her family had an immediate visual effect on Ginny, as her smile fell and the sparkle in her eyes died. "What, trouble in paradise?" She had fallen into her comfort zone talking to Hermione, but she now reminded herself why she had started estranging the girl in the first place. She was dating Ron and was Harry's long time best friend. Those two would always come first for her and Ginny wasn't ready to accept that. Better to cut all ties instead of setting herself up for another hurt. Hermione was too easy to talk to, so Ginny would have to force herself to not get reattached to the girl she spent all summer effectively distancing herself away from.
"Are you serious? We haven't talked all summer and I plan on ending it for good as soon as we get a chance to talk things through." Ginny's brows furrowed, the information completely new to her. She couldn't help herself, she had to ask.
"How come? He hasn't said anything and everyone always thought you two would end up married and with a bunch of ginger brats." Hermione's expression darkened and her mouth reacted before her brain. "Well, everyone thought that about you and Harry too, and we know how that turned out."
The moment the words left her mouth, Hermione knew she had screwed up bad. Ginny's look became charged with so much hatred that she wanted to shrink away at its intensity. She should not have mentioned Harry.
Thing was, at the end of last year Ginny had taken it upon herself to organise the celebration for their Quidditch cup win. Her goal had been for Harry to realise how adult she was by planning a party that would be talked about for ages and making him notice her as something other than just his friend's little sister. All was well until sometime around midnight, when a very drunk Ginny approached the hero of the day and was unceremoniously rejected. He hadn't been trying to be mean, he just genuinely wasn't interested in her and, devastated, she ran out of the common room.
In a stroke of fabulous luck, none other than Professor Snape rounded that exact corner and caught a drunk, crying Gryffindor out of bed, hours after curfew. Filled with glee, he basically dragged her to McGonagall's office, where he handed her over to the groggy professor who'd just been awoken in the middle of the night. Things really took a turn for the worse from that moment on, when the Head of House entered the common room and faced the absolute chaos that reigned within. Seeing as she couldn't exactly expel everyone from the fourth year up, she searched for the instigator and quickly found her after a few drunken fingers had been pointed to the cowering girl at her side. Upon seeing that, the Ginny promptly puked on Minerva's night slippers for good measure.
Needless to say, she was expelled the very next day and her parents were beyond furious when they were notified to come pick her up. Ginny's story quickly became Hogwarts' hottest gossip and, even if she hadn't been expelled, the pressure would have probably been too much for the girl to bear. Now, Harry was an obvious sore spot, and it was clear Ginny blamed him for the events of that night ultimately resulting in her expulsion.
"I'm sorry, let's just forget I brought him up." But the girl's answering silence and the cold glint in her eyes told her Hermione that she might have just caused damage that would be very hard to repair.
"You interrupted my practice and I still have a few routines to go over. I think I should return to that now." That was as clear a dismissal as she could get, but Hermione, now grasping for straws, remembered Miss Weasley's request.
"Actually, your mother wanted to talk to you as soon as possible, she sent me to tell you." She'd expected a sigh, an eye roll, but still compliance with her mother's wish, and was therefore very surprised when Ginny simply raised an eyebrow.
"So? She's waited so long, I'm sure she can wait a bit longer. You can leave now, Hermione." With that, she kicked off and flew back towards the hoops.
She stared at her retreating back, mind running a hundred miles per hour. It had not been particularly obvious at first, but Hermione realised now that Ginny was a very changed girl. Gone was her good-natured, trusting personality and she was scared to discover what had been left in their wake.