Author's Note:

It's long but there's only one person who needs to read it (cough cough Jayley) I got 4 bad reviews and I'm here to defend myself to those who have read them. You think what Hermione is doing is segregation, which is bad, but it's not. If your Catholic, for example, you have a choice between going to public school or going to a Catholic school. No one is forcing you to go to Catholic school and be away from other religions, it's simply a choice. Same with all-girls or all-boys schools. Hermione is not forcing Muggle-borns to go to her school but it is a choice that is open. She doesn't just want Muggle-borns because she hates wizard-borns, she just wants them to have a safe environment open to them if they would rather be away from Slytherins who abuse them. It's choice, not segregation.) Also, in regards to the 'Thanksgiving issue', I have an answer to that. Read on and you'll find out..

Thankyou to those who left nice rewiews. )

I don't own Harry Potter. So sad!

Chapter 13

Hermione and Vinola were the only ones in their dorm. They sat on Hermione's bed and stared at the package. It was about the size of cauldren and looked full to bursting. They looked at eachother, then the box, then eachother, then the box. Finally, Hermione picked it up.

"We'll never know until we open it." She sounded confident but felt nothing like that.

"I know." Vinola sighed, "Let's just do it. If it's bad news, at least we tried." With that she took out her wand and mumbled a quick spell, Hermione still holding the package. The top then flew off and the anxious girls looked inside. On top of a large and heavy stack of papers sat a heavy, cast iron set of keys. They looked about 1500 years old but someone had tried to polish them unsuccessfully. Hermione let out a little gasp and picked them up, not entirely believing that they were real. she fumbled with them in her hands while Vinola watched and waited anxiously for her to say something. After a few moments of scrutinizing Hermione looked up at Vinola.

"Th-th-they're real! My God, Vinola! These are the keys! WE'VE WON!!" Hermione began laughing and jumping on the bed and Vinola got up and did a dance for joy.

"I can't believe it, Hermione! It's just so-- OH GOSH!!!!!!! WE WON!!!!" Vinola jumped up on the bed with Hermione and they jumped and screamed and laughed until the box fell off the bed, sending a giant wave of paper to spread across the floor. They finally sat down and took a few deep calming breaths.

"Well," began Hermione, "that was exciting but I suppose we should look at these. Don't you?' she motioned at the papers scattered around their room. "Accio papers!" All the papers zipped back to her and she layed them down upon the bed between herself and Vinola.

Vinola picked up the top page and began to read aloud.

"Dear Hermione Granger and Vinola Mooncross,

My husband and I read through many, many letters but they all seemed silly compared to yours. My husband is muggle-born and he remembers what it was like having to deal with people who thought that he was inferior when really he was one of the brightest in his class. Congratulations! You girls will soon be the owners of Cranberry Castle. This castle has been in my family since it was built 1500 years ago so you can understand why I didn't want to give it just anybody. I hope that you will use it well, I would hate to regret my decision. You will find inclosed the following:

The set of keys that opens every door in Cranberry Castle, there are quite a lot of them.

Illustrations describing the layout of the entire castle and surrounding area.

A history of Cranberry Castle

I hope that this is everything you need but if you need help you can always write to myself or my husband. Treat it well.

Sincerily, Quinn and Galvin Brennan

"So it's really our's, Hermione. We own a castle in Branbridge, Ireland." she let out a loud laugh of disbelief. "So...what's first, then?" Hermione thought about it. There would be a million things to do. Thinking about them all gave her a head ache. "You know what? We have been working pretty hard lately and I say that the first thing we do should be to take a day and just relax for a bit." she put stress on the word 'relax'.

Vinola sighed, "This going to take a lot of work, we should probably get started as soon as we can." then she smiled mischeiviously, "But I know two boys who have been feeling a bit neglected lately that could probably help us relax."

Hermione laughed and heartily agreed. They put everything back in the box and put it in Hermione's suit case for safe keeping. They would return to it tomorrow. Hermione then got up and led the way back to the Great Hall where Harry and Ron were waiting for them.

"Are you girls feeling better? You seemed a bit 'off' this morning." said Ron.

"Yes, yes. We're fine. We were just a bit stressed out but we feel better now." Hermione smiled affectionately.

"That's good, let's go for a walk."

Arm-in-arm they walked around the grounds of Hogwarts. It was supposed to be a final day of relaxation for the girls but their heads were still buzzing with thoughts of what their futures held. Hermione was deep in thought when Harry broke down her brain-wall with a question as they strolled by the lake.

"Hey, Dumbledore said something early, you know, when you two left. He said that we were having a feast tonight for something called like 'Thanks-bringing' or something. Anyone know what that is?"

Hermione rolled her eyes but enlightened her confused friends when she saw their dumbstruck faces. "'Thanksgiving'. It's an American holliday. I don't know all the story but it's just the day they celebrate the first people to come to the country. Everyone eats a feast and boys watch sports all day."

"Oh. That sounds fun." Vinola said sarcastically. "If it's an American holiday why are we celebrating it?"

"I think Dumbledore just wanted another day to have a feast but I know there is one American girl who came this year. Jennifer something-or-other. It might have to do with her." Hermione finished.

"Who knows?" said Ron.

"Who cares? Either way we get another feast!" Vinola exclaimed. They laughed and started running back inside, a chilly breeze blowing right behind them.

Later that night, mid-way through the American feast, Hermione claimed to have a stomach-ache and Vinola escorted her back to their empty dorm once again. Vinola wasn't sure if she was serious or not.

"What's up, Hermione? Are you sick or just wanted some alone time with me?"

"Ha ha. You're so funny." Hermione rolled her eyes and began pulling out the familiar green box. "I just couldn't wait any longer. It's been driving me crazy all day thinking about it!"

Vinola smiled. "I know how you feel. I can't stand even more that I haven't told Harry. I hate keeping things from him."

"Same with me and Ron." Hermione started pulling papers out and placing them on the floor in front of her. She then got a stern look on her face. "But we're not telling them. At least not yet."

Vinola sighed and started going through the papers as well. She picked up the large packet of the castle's history while Hermione began looking over the layout.

"Hermione, this is pretty interesting. There's at least 3 ghosts in the castle that they know of."

Hermione barely heard her. "There's 238 rooms! That's plenty of space for staff, and students, and classrooms, and there's 2 bathrooms on every floor. I really think this is going to work." She smiled optimisticly.

"There used to be 250 but part of the castle was mysteriously blown up. That's how one of the ghosts became, you know, not alive."

Hermione snorted and kept reading. When both girls had finished they made a list of the basic contents of the castle:

238 rooms, 2 bathrooms per floor (included)

7 floors, 34 rooms per floor

Over 400 acres of surrounding land ("Ugh, with that much land I suppose we have to have a Quiditch pitch, don't we?" Hermione hated Quiditch and Vinola rolled her eyes at her.)

A pond in front

A small wooded area

Aproximately 3 ghosts

"There's not much to the land but the castle is magnificent." Hermione said sleepily.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. It's smaller than Hogwarts but I don't think it'll have nearly as many students."

Hermione sighed, "You're right. Tomorrow we can--" she was cut off as the other girls they shared a room with began returning from the feast. "Quickly!" They began grabbing papers left and right and flung them untidely into the box. Hermione brought her voice down to a whisper in Vinola's ear. "We can talk more soon. We have a lot of work to do but we can't do it here all the time."

"I know." replied Vinola, her voice equally as quiet. "We need a place to keep this stuff safe. We can look this weekend. For now, maybe we should just drop it. Sooner or later someone could walk in on us and we can't keep ditching Ron and Harry like this. They'll think something's up."

Hermione nodded in agreement and snapped the suitcase containing the box shut. "This weekend then."

"Hey!" said Parvarti, flinging herself down on Hermione's bed. "What are you two whispering about?"

"Uh.." said Hermione blandly.

"We're just trying to decide who has the best butt, Ron Weasley or Harry Potter." Vinola giggled.

Hermione blushed, she was never as 'out there' as Vinola was but the rest of the dorm laughed.

"Sorry Hermione, but I think Harry wins that one."

Vinola stuck her tongue out at Hermione and she joined in the important debate now under way.

Author's Note:

Ha ha. I don't know about you guys, but I think I'm funny. Hurray for comic relief! I love ending on funny notes and cliff hangers. Oh! Just so you know, the best thing about fanfiction is that when I leave cliff hangers, you can't just turn the page. MWAHAHAHA!
Love ya'!