"Well, are you coming?" Vinola flashed a white smile at Harry and started walking towards a larger house at the edge of a hill near the owl house. Hermione and her friends exchanged glances and ran to catch up to her. "You know," Vinola started, "you haven't told me your names."
"Oh, I'm Hermi-"
"I'm Harry Potter." he interrupted, ignoring the look he was getting from Hermione. "And this is Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger." He motioned to them but didn't take his attention away from Vinola.
"Hello Harry, Hermione, and Ron. It's nice to meet you all. I really am very sorry about the scratches, they're supposed to drop them over cities and villages, not attack people. Sometimes they just get a bit over excited." She giggled.
"It's alright. A few scratches never hurt anyone."
"Speak for yourself Harry, I think I might be allergic to owl talons." Ron's arm had begun to swell and it was already almost twice it's normal size.
"Oh gosh! Hurry up then, the sooner you let me put the medicine on it, the better." They began running and it was pretty pointless since they were only a few seconds away anyways. Vinola had a nice house. It was blue with two floors and a big wooden door which Vinola kicked at until someone came to unlock it.
"Why was the door locked?! You knew I was right next door!" Vinola was yelling at a boy about her age with the same colored hair but he had hazel eyes.
"I had to lock it! That crazy fortune telling lady was walking around here all morning moaning something about visitors to the village." he looked behind Vinola at Hermione and her friends, "Oh great! She's been right another bloody time! I swear one day she'll finally be wrong and I'm gonna be right there to gloat about it!" He paused for a moment before he realized that Vinola and her guests were still standing on the porch waiting to come inside. "Oh, um, sorry about that. Vinola, who've got here?"
"Fidelio, this is Harry Potter, Ron Westly and Herninny Ranger. This is-"
"Actually," said Hermione, "I'm HERMIONE Granger and this is Ron WEASLEY." Hermione looked a bit annoyed but when she thought about it, she plugged it in that Harry liked her and she shouldn't ruin it by being rude.
"Oh, sorry. This is my brother, Fidelio."
"Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, you too." Fidelio looked like he was just going to stand there all day blocking the door so it was a big relief when Vinola finally spoke up.
"Hey, Fidelio, we're sort of trying to get Into the house so if you wouldn't mind…"
"OH! Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I'm having kind of a slow day, I think I'm going to go rest for a bit." With that Fidelio walked inside and Vinola invited them in and took them into the kitchen. She let them sit down at the table while she left the room for a minute to get the medicine.
"So," said Hermione, "This is a nice house. What do you guys think of Vinola? It's pretty obvious that she's a witch but have either of you seen her at Hogwarts before?"
"No, I like her though, she's nice but she does need to get a handle on her owls. And who has that many owls anyway?" Ron was still scrutinizing his arm, wondering if the scratches would scar.
"I think she's wonderful." It was Harry of course who said this.
"Harry you've known her for all of 15 minutes, you should probably get to know her first before you start throwing out words like 'wonderful'." just then Vinola came back in with a small bottle of swirling green liquid. It looked like perfume.
"Close your mouths, you're not supposed to breathe it in." They did as told and she sprayed it on their arms then turned it around and sprayed a few of her own scratches. They watched as their cuts seeped into their skin, leaving no hint of ever having been there.
"So Vinola, are you in school right now?" Hermione figured that if Harry wasn't going to ask her about herself she would.
"Kind of. It's a bit complicated. You see, My parents travel a lot for their jobs, Aurors, so I've never actually been to a wizarding school." seeing the shocked looks on their faces, she quickly added the next part. "I do know quite a bit of magic though, my Mum has been teaching me all the school stuff since I was 9. She would've waited until I was 11 but with her being at work a lot she thought we should use whatever time we could. I believe I should be in 6th year this year. I'll be starting as a 6th year at Hogwarts this year."
"Do schools allow that? I've never heard of anyone else being taught at home." Hermione was filled with curiosity about this girl's life.
"They allow it for…special circumstances, like mine is." She smiled in a cheerful way that told them it was okay to ask more questions. She had a very inviting manor.
"Are you guys hungry? Harry, could I get you something?"
"Hmm? Oh, no, I'm fine thanks. We're in our 6th year too. Do you have any questions about Hogwarts?" Harry looked really hopeful to keep a conversation going, he didn't want to leave just yet. Hermione, however, was ready to get home to The Burrow and start packing.
"I do have one, what's this thing I've heard about houses?"
"I can answer that one but I think it's better to be surprised." Harry gave Hermione a look and she gave him one back. Harry knew he wouldn't win over Hermione.
"Oh, okay. I guess I'll wait and be surprised. I have to get back to my owlery pretty quick so I'm sorry to ask you to leave."
"That's okay, we have packing to do anyway. Before we go, why do you have so many owls?" They had nearly forgotten about the owls.
"My owls? They're not my owls actually. They belong to who ever is sending a letter. They just come to me because I'm stating a revolution. The owls are being mistreated and they deserve more rewards for their service. Do you even know what they go through just to take our silly letters about? It's terrible. Some of them do get a bit violent to get their points across as you've seen." She giggled embarrassedly.
"Wow, Vinola. That's really noble of you to try and help them." She giggled again and Harry smiled nervously.
"Thanks, Harry."
"Well, I guess we should be going now! Come along Harry." Hermione grabbed his arm and Ron grabbed her hand and they started to leave. "Thanks for having us Vinola."
"No problem. See you at school Harry!"
"See you!"
They walked a bit farther until they were fully out of the village and they began talking again.
"I don't know what you were worried about, Ron. I had a good time."
"You would, I still don't like the village. It gives me the creeps just knowing I went in there."
"Oh Ronald, grow up!" They laughed and started running back to The Burrow. They were more excited than ever to go back to school now.
A Note From Me:
I know it's going a bit slowly, but hey, that's how JK does it and I'm proud to say that my style seems similar in the least to her's. If you have any advice for me I'd appreciate it. In case you're wondering, Hermione will start thinking about the school again once she's back at Hogwarts. Sorry if that chapter was a bit too Harry focused but I couldn't help it. So, um, yeah, ttys