Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
If You Can Help Her – Chapter 18 – Truce
Harry and Ginny entered her room, while Hermione went back downstairs, saying something about keeping Ron company. As soon as Harry and Ginny closed the door, Ginny pointed her wand at the door and made it imperturbable. Harry commented, "Believe me, Gin, I hate to say it, but my lips are still way too sore to kiss you."
She blushed. "I know, so are mine! That's not why I wanted privacy. There are a few things I want to talk to you about."
Harry appeared curious. "Which are?"
"One is about becoming animagi, and the other is about Ron and Hermione."
He raised his eyebrows at the mention of the non-couple. "What about Ron and Hermione? They still haven't figured out their feelings yet, and I doubt they ever will."
Ginny smiled, "Exactly! That's why we've got to interfere! Maybe if we lock them together…"
"Ginny," explained Harry, taking one of her hands in his, "if we lock them together, they're more likely to kill each other than snog! We have to get them to admit their feelings to each other, which just won't happen because they won't even admit it to us!"
Ginny sighed. "It would take some kind of truth serum to get them to admit their feelings, and even then they'd still need to be forced to talk to each other."
"Where would we even get something like that?" asked Harry.
"Fred and George!" she exclaimed, and then frowned. "They won't help us right now, though."
Harry smiled, "They might agree to call a temporary truce to join forces with us."
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask," conceded Ginny. "Anyway, how are we going to go about learning how to become animagi?"
Harry looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "I suppose any book that the Hogwarts library has on the subject would be in the restricted section. I say that we should just buy a book on our first Hogsmeade visit. I'm sure the bookstore there will have something we can use."
"Okay," agreed Ginny. "Do you want to talk to Gred and Forge now?"
"Might as well get it over with," replied Harry, shrugging his shoulders.
Ginny undid the spell on the door, and hand-in-hand they walked to Fred and George's room. Harry knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" asked one of the twins from the other side.
"It's Harry and Ginny," responded Harry. "We'd like a truce to confer with you privately."
"What about? We don't surrender. In fact, we're in the middle…"
"We'd like to make you an offer you can't refuse," interrupted Ginny, getting frustrated.
"Fine, we'll talk to you." A second later, Fred opened the door, allowing the visitors to come in.
After they'd closed and unperturbed the door, the twins looked at the couple expectantly. Ginny began, "We want to call a truce and join forces to bring Ron and Hermione together before school starts in three days."
The twins raised their eyebrows and grinned. Harry continued, "We have the beginnings of a plan, but need your skills to pull it off."
Fred commented, "An interesting proposition. What is this plan?"
"We think that they'll need some sort of truth serum to admit their feelings, so we basically capture them in a room tied down, poor the stuff down their throats, and ask them if they fancy each other so that the other can hear the answer."
Ginny added, "As we said, it's only the beginning of a plan. I figured we could work out the details after we knew if you were in or out."
The twins looked at each other and seemed to communicate telepathically. George answered, "We'll help you with this…"
"…but that doesn't mean we won't retaliate for the pranks you pulled this morning," added Fred.
"We still owe you for that," commented George.
Harry then suggested, "But wouldn't it be better to combine our talents to prank people like Malfoy instead of us."
"That's an excellent idea," agreed Fred.
"But we first have to even the score," added George.
"We can't have you saying you won a prank war against us," insisted Fred.
"It would ruin our reputations," completed George.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. "Fine," agreed Ginny. "The next time you get us, we won't retaliate as long as you don't escalate it."
"Harry will look so pretty in a pink miniskirt," commented Fred, causing Harry's ears to turn pink.
"And Ginny will look quite handsome with a beard," added George, turning Ginny's face pink.
With that said, the four of them went to work on their plans, only leaving the twins' room for meals, and then returning as soon as they were finished. Hermione noticed this, and thought it rather odd that they'd be spending so much time together right after that morning's prank.
-IYCHH-
The next morning, everyone arrived at breakfast on time. They pleasantly chatted about the upcoming year at Hogwarts and what would be a good prank to pull on Malfoy. At a certain point, Ginny winked at Harry, who asked, "Percy, are you sure Mr. Crouch did the right thing by sacking Winky? It just doesn't seem right to me."
Percy looked at Harry condescendingly, as though he were explaining advanced physics to a toddler who couldn't read yet. "Harry, you have to understand that when people reach a place of respect within the ministry, they can't have servants running amok embarrassing them and marring their reputation. He was perfectly correct to sack that worthless disobedient elf."
Hermione, who had been intently listening to that exchange, glared at Percy. She yelled, "House elves aren't servants, they're slaves! I can't believe the wizarding world can be so barbaric as to condone the slavery of sentient beings simply because …" On and on she went in her tirade on house elf rights while Percy was visibly in shock at her outburst. Neither noticed Ginny quickly drop something in Hermione's drink.
At the same time, Ron was so absorbed watching Hermione (not her drink) argue that he didn't notice George do the same to his drink. Hermione's speech ended only when Percy hurried away from the table, claiming something about running late for work. After that, breakfast resumed normally. Eventually, when they got done eating, Ginny invited Harry, Hermione, and Ron up to her room to talk.
When they got into her room, Ginny and Hermione sat on Ginny's bed, while Ron and Harry sat on Hermione's bed. As soon as they were seated, the door, which Harry had closed on his way in, glowed pink for a second. Hermione asked, "What was that?"
"A type of privacy charm," answered Ginny quickly.
"Why do we need privacy to talk?" asked Ron. "Did Harry have another dream?"
"No, Ron," answered Harry. "This is about another problem in our group."
"What problem," asked Hermione, looking concerned.
"You and Ron," answered Ginny.
"Us?" asked both of the accused at the same time.
"I know we sometimes argue, but honestly there's no serious problem," assured Hermione.
"Ron," asked Harry, smirking, "Do you fancy Hermione?" Hermione hid her pink face in her hands.
Ron's ears went pink. "W-Why are you asking that question," replied Ron angrily. "Of course I do, I mean I dooo. What is wrong with me? Why can't I say I doooo?!" He covered his mouth with his hands.
"Hermione," asked Ginny with a smile on her face, "Do you fancy Ron?"
Her face turned red. "How can you ask me that? I don't know why you think I fancy him, but I doooo. I mean I doo?! What have you done to us to make us say that we fancy each other?!"
Harry answered. "We gave you truth serum."
"What?!" screamed both Ron and Hermione at the same time.
"We knew we had to find a way to get you to stop denying your feelings, so we got Fred and George to help us make a truth serum for you, and we slipped it into your drinks during Hermione's 'elf rights' speech."
The two victims just sat there staring silently at Harry and Ginny. Harry finally broke the silence. "Now that both of you have admitted you fancy each other, Ginny and I are going to leave you two alone for a while. I suggest you take advantage of this time."
Ginny smiled. "By snogging each other senseless." Ginny pointed her wand at the door and released the charm. Then Harry and Ginny left the room, closing the door behind them.
As soon as they were in the hall, Fred and George accosted them. "Did it work?" they asked together.
"Perfectly," answered Ginny.
"Good," said Fred.
"Because we cursed that door to make you two incapable of helping anyone for the next three hours," commented George.
"Don't worry; it won't effect Ron," reassured Fred.
"But it will effect Hermione when she leaves the room," continued George.
"The effect should start in fifteen seconds," declared Fred.
"Have a nice day, and this will make us even," finished George, as they both walked away.
Harry and Ginny stared at each other in horror, waiting for whatever the twins had done to them. Harry noticed Ginny's problem first. "Ginny, it looks like you're growing whiskers, I mean a beard, I mean, wow!" At this point, Ginny had a long auburn beard down to her waist, and it was still growing.
She pointed at Harry's chest and exclaimed, "Oh my God! You've got, I mean, they're bigger than…"
Harry looked down at his chest to see that his shirt, which thankfully had been big on him, was being pushed out in front of him by two huge boobs. They both ran into Ron's room to hide until the affects went away.
-IYCHH-
Chapter end