Life, Love, and an Acute Caffeine Dependency
By: QDT
Disclaimer: I am the Queen of Duct Tape, not the Queen of Harry Potter.
Chapter Two
Being intelligent people (and being slightly more awake), Hermione and Fred eventually cleaned up the coffee with magic. This is, obviously, the obvious solution, but let me assure you that nothing is obvious without coffee. If, perhaps, you find yourself unable to comprehend how it is impossible to function in the morning, go read something else.
Later that day (during her lunch break, actually), Hermione was at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor when someone called her name. From less than two feet behind her.
"HERMIONE!" Hermione jumped, dropping her empty plastic bowl, which clattered a bit and finally fell off the table. She turned around to see a grinning George being pulled toward her by Alicia.
"Hello," Alicia said, sitting down and pulling George down beside her.
"Hello," Hermione replied. "Aren't you guys supposed to be moving?"
"We need to eat," George informed her, taking a huge bite out of the hitherto unmentioned ice cream he had been carrying. It was gone in less than a minute. Both females raised their eyebrows.
"How did Molly manage to feed all of you, anyway?" Alicia wondered aloud, as George stole a bite from her ice cream as well.
"It's one of the mysteries of the universe," Hermione told her. Alicia nodded as George polished off her ice cream.
"I'm not throwing that away," she told George, then turned to Hermione. "By the way, would you mind helping us move tonight after you got off? We're going to need a few extra wands for some of the bigger furniture.
"Sure," said Hermione. "When do you want me to be over there?"
"When do you get off?"
"Four thirty."
"Well, we told everyone else five, but if you can't make it by then, that's fine." Hermione shook her head.
"Five should be fine, as long as the shift after me isn't late."
"Great!" Alicia grinned at her. "See you then!"
Hermione smiled back and glanced at her watch. She then jumped up and threw her plastic container away, calling over her shoulder, "I've got to get back to work!"
As she left, she watched Alicia and George start to flirt like teenagers. Of course, this was understandable, as George was unlikely to mature past the age of sixteen. He certainly hadn't shown any signs of it yet.
That afternoon, Fred was at the WWW. Alicia and George had stopped by to ask him to help them move some of the larger furniture. Alicia had mentioned that Hermione was coming too. Restocking a shelf of Skiving Snackboxes, Fred wondered if Hermione even knew where George and Alicia's new house was. He soon put the thought from his mind, figuring that Alicia was far more sensible than either of the twins and would surely have given her directions.
As it turned out, Hermione had not the slightest idea where their house was, as she realized when her shift started again. For a moment, she frowned, and then her face cleared as she decided to simply pay a visit to Fred before she went home, because he would surely be able to direct her to his twin's house.
"Hello, Fred," she greeted the redhead at the counter as she walked in. Fred waved and finished checking out a customer before turning to Hermione.
"So, what brings the lovely lady to my humble shop for the second time in one day?" he asked, grinning at her. She smiled back.
"I need directions to George and Alicia's house," she told him.
"Ah," he said. He glanced at the clock. "Why don't you come back in fifteen minutes and I'll take you there myself?"
"Sure," she said. "See you in a few." Then she left, trying to ignore the funny flippy feeling in her stomach when Fred grinned and waved.
Fifteen minutes later she was back, dressed in casual clothes and her damp hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
"After you," said Fred, motioning towards the door. Hermione started to leave, but felt something tugging on her hair and stopped in the middle of the doorway.
"What are you doing?"
"Playing with your hair. See, this curl goes boing…boing…boing…"
"Ah," said Hermione. She started walking again. "It's within walking distance?"
"Yep. Five minutes, tops. Can I take your hair out of the ponytail?"
"Why?"
"I want to braid it."
"You can braid hair?"
"Oh ye of little faith…Ginny taught me. On your cat."
"You braided Crookshanks' fur!" Hermione stopped again.
"Yes. At this rate we'll be lucky to get there by six thirty, never mind five o'clock." Hermione stared walking again. "So, can I?"
She sighed. "Fine."
"Great!" Walking along the road, Hermione reflected on how nice it was for someone else to do your hair for once. (Try it sometime. It does wonders for stress.)
By the time they arrived, everyone else was already there and Fred was just finishing Hermione's braid, which actually didn't look half bad. Actually, not everyone was there. George and Alicia, oddly, were nowhere to be seen, but some furniture was still out on the lawn anyway.
Five minutes later (and four minutes late) the two came dashing out the door, both looking very disheveled and wearing identical guilty expressions. The state of their clothes (and faces) made it obvious that they had been snogging, causing Fred and Lee Jordan to burst into laughter. Although, everyone else (being Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Oliver Wood, and, of course, Hermione) was laughing too, but Fred and Lee were the only ones rolling around on the grass.
Eventually they managed to get themselves under control once more, and it was the work of ten minutes to get the rest of the furniture in its proper place. This was largely due to the help of Hermione's skills with a wand, and the others, who had never been in any of her classes and thus had no experience with her abilities outside of battle strategy, watched in awe most of the time. After they were done, however, George slung his arm around Hermione's shoulders and commented,
"You know, if you had just told us that you could do it all by yourself, then you could have saved us a bunch of trouble by not having to invite everyone." Hermione just rolled her eyes.
"He's right, you know," said Katie. Then, she was suddenly struck by what was, Hermione's standards, a very bad idea. "Let's all take you out for a drink to thank you." The older woman grinned at her.
"I don't think-" Hermione started, but Fred cut her off.
"Nonsense," he said. "It'll be fun." Deciding it was best not to let her argue, he gripped her arm gently and before she had a chance to protest, apparated to the Leaky Cauldron, pulling her along with him.
So that's chapter two. Terribly sorry it was up so late. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you review!
Until next time,
Ab