As they waited in line, Hermione thought about her current life. It had been a while since Ron and Hermione had done anything fun but they were adults now and their careers were the main center of their lives. Hermione also felt strange hanging out in a place full of regular people, the people she had grown up with in her early childhood. Actually, when she was younger she loved theme parks, but Ron didn't know anything about the regular world, having grown up in the wizarding world. If only it was Ron taking her here on this lazy Friday afternoon. Somehow if Ron took her here it seemed less upsetting.

Lockhart made her go on a roller coaster, then a space shot, then a spin out. Hermione was feeling nauseated by the third ride, and as she wobbled down the main road, she was about to ask Lockhart to stop going on rides. Maybe if she threw up all over him he'd leave her alone, but Lockhart headed away from the rides and they appeared in front of a open area with dozens of tented stands and booths.

"Go win me a prize."

"…"

Hermione exasperatedly said, "This is a waste of time, and you've had your fun. Let me go home!"

Lockhart started to look angry, but he didn't say anything. Without warning he suddenly stepped in close to Hermione.

"And I know what you are trying to do. It's not going to work," Hermione continued, looking up at Lockhart, refusing to be intimidated.

Lockhart grabbed both her wrists and pulled her into him.

"What am I trying to do?"

Hermione didn't struggle at all. She just gave him a dead look and said, "No matter what you do, I won't like you even one bit. You kidnapped me and did all those things to me, I'll never forget that."

For a moment, Lockhart looked so angry that Hermione was afraid. She wasn't afraid of what Lockhart would do to her, but of what he might tell or do to Ron. But Lockhart only jerked away and let go of her. He looked at the booths in front of them and said in a quiet voice, "Go win me a prize, and you can go home."

Hermione was flabbergasted. She gaped at Lockhart, still standing tall, his arms at his side. His t-shirt was stretched over his chest and she could clearly see his pectoral muscles. But what was it to Hermione that Lockhart was acting so strange? The sooner she could be rid of him the better. She headed off to the first stand she could see, some sort of ball and bottle game. The stand attendant looked at her expectantly, and a moment later Hermione realized she didn't have any money.

Lockhart snickered and handed her a wad of notes. Hermione peeled them apart and handed one to the attendant, and got 3 softballs. The attendant explained that all the bottle's had to be knocked over in one throw to receive the top prize, but if all of them were knocked over within 3 throws, a prize would still be awarded. Hermione threw them all, but somehow 2 bottles still remained standing.

"That's too bad…", said the attendant in a sorry tone, but handed Hermione back her change. 49 pounds. Hermione flipped through the stack of notes and realized they were all duplicates of the same 50 pound note.

She turned to Lockhart and chastised in a low tone, "You can't just counterfeit muggle money!"

Lockhart's face didn't even show the slightest sign of shame. "To play the games you need money. Do you want to go home or not?"

Hermione was angry, but she was even more anxious to get out of this crowded place where people were seeing her together with Lockhart. She swallowed her anger and handed 5 more pounds to the attendant.

She wasn't a bad shot, but it always took her 2 throws to knock down all but 2 or 3 of the bottles, and then it was hard for her to get all the last ones with only 1 throw. When she failed again on the last game, she couldn't help but curse out loud.

Lockhart snickered again, taunting her, "You're terrible at this."

Hermione couldn't help but let a pouty expression form, but she clenched or teeth together, and ignored Lockhart.

"Give me the balls," snapped Hermione, pushing another pound into the attendant's hands.

The attendant looked sheepish, and exchanged a look with the manager of the booths. Hermione noticed he took a lot longer setting up the bottles this time before he handed the 3 softballs to her.

This time, Hermione got all but 1 bottle in 2 throws.

Hermione gave a triumphant look to Lockhart, saying, "Looks like I'm not so bad." Then she aimed and threw the last ball at the last bottle. The ball hit the bottle but somehow the bottle didn't fall, and the ball bounced away.

Lockhart burst out laughing, saying, "You should see the look on your face!"

Hermione's look of shock immediately transformed into anger. She could tell the bottle must be weighted, and immediately complained to the attendant, "You rigged this game!"

Hermione wasn't a short woman, she was around 5'9"-10", it was just that Lockhart was very tall. She was able to look at the attendant dead in the eye, but what she found was a look of utter confusion. The attendant looked at Hermione, then at Lockhart, then at his manager, then at Hermione again. He quickly went to the back and took out a large stuffed bear and handed it to Hermione.

"Here, a prize for playing. A cute bear for a cutie!" said the attendant.

Hermione was a bit surprised, and didn't take the bear, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden. It wasn't like she was a little kid anymore, whining and refusing to leave until she was given a prize, but the attendant didn't know anything about Lockhart's demand of her. Hermione could see the bear was actually the prize that would have been given out if she had won in one throw. Hermione knew she hadn't even come close to knocking all the bottles down with one throw, but the attendant was just being nice and giving the bear to her anyways. The attendant gave an encouraging smile, "It's all right, go on take it."

Hermione smiled back and thought she would able to get rid of Lockhart with this prize, and was about reach out and take the bear when Lockhart interrupted her by pulling her arm and saying, "That pity prize doesn't count. You have to win the prize."

Hermione began to argue, "You never sa—."

"I said to you, "go win me a prize, and you can go home". Win."

Hermione pushed Lockhart away with a 'hmph', and immediately went to another booth, a ring toss game. She immediately shoved 10 pounds into the attendant's hands. She was given 5 rings and as long as at least 3 of them ended up around a bottle a prize was given out.

She played 2 rounds, but somehow her luck was terrible, not a single ring landed, even when she leaned over as far as she could. She didn't pay much attention to Lockhart at first, but she noticed after the second round that Lockhart was staring at her hips every time she made a toss. Normally, if it were Ron, she wouldn't mind but with Lockhart it made her angry.

"Don't look at me."

"It'd be a sin not to look at a beautiful girl like you. And I've seen all of you already, a little more looking won't harm anybody."

Hermione flushed, unable to believe Lockhart would talk like this in public. She threw the rings down and was about to tell Lockhart to end this stupid charade. She was getting tired and it was hot. Her tank top was already soaked in sweat, and she could see Lockhart was sweating too. She just wanted to go home but Lockhart was keeping her trapped here. But then she saw a mini plastic pool with kids surrounding it.

The duck game! It was impossible to lose that game, there were always ducks with mini-prizes. She almost ran to it, giving the attendant another 10 pounds, saying "I want to play."

The attendant's eyes widened, and tentatively nodded. "It's 1 duck per pound."

Hermione waited until the kid in front of her took a duck, and bent down and grabbed her own. The bottom was blank. She put it back and grabbed a different one. Still empty. Hermione almost cursed, "Shi—", but noticed the attendant was watching her. There were kids around too. She tucked her hair behind her ears, took a breath and grabbed 5 ducks. All of them were blank. Hermione was getting angry again. What Hermione hated most was unfair things, and before she could control herself she stood and grabbed the cuff of the attendant, saying "This game is rigged too!"

The attendant was taken aback. He wasn't as tall as Hermione, and now he was being threatened by her, a tall, young, beautiful woman, over a stupid carnival game! It was a little intimidating and totally out of the ordinary. He stuttered a response, "Miss, that kid just got a prize."

Some of the kids were staring at them now, pointing and giggling.

Hermione felt her face turn red and bent down and grabbed 5 more ducks. All of them were blank. How could this happen? Hermione looked up at the attendant, angrily saying, "You're lying, none of the ducks I've picked have a prize."

The attendant started to look anxious, saying, "Look, you've used your chances and other people are waiting to play… but if you wait your turn you can play again. I'm sure you'll win something."

Hermione was getting really annoyed and grabbed the whole pool and picked it up. Ever since the first game she played she sensed something was wrong with the games in this area, and she wanted to prove it. The attendant saw what she was doing and grabbed the other end, frantically saying, "Miss, you can't just—" but in the midst of their struggle the pool turned over and water splashed everywhere. The kids were screaming happily, while Hermione was both embarrassed and angry. She could hear Lockhart laughing behind her. She looked over on the bottom of the ducks and not a single one had a prize sticker.

Hermione turned to the attendant and said, "You little cheat! There are no prizes…".

Suddenly, the attendant started to looked confused too, and began saying, "I swear there were prize stickers on the ducks, even if there isn't a big prize sticker, I always put in some small prizes for the kids…"

But Hermione saw out of the corner of her eye Lockhart hastily sliding a wand back into his pocket.

Lockhart's said, still grinning, "Hey, it was funny."

Hermione instantly realized what had happened. It was Lockhart this whole time, even during the first game he was using magic to make her fail. Hermione felt like this time she really would kill him, but she couldn't just yet, because a fat security guard was walking up.

—

Next Chapter 8