Winter Vacation by WeasleyForMe

Hermione and George have been together through thick and thin, and it's about time they treated themselves to a vacation! But maybe Hermione shouldn't have allowed George to plan the trip... what could possibly go wrong?

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Clover Bay! I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 3

"Hello, I'm here to see a travel agent!" George announced as he entered the Muggle agency. Several men and women sitting at their desks eyed the man wielding one ski and one tennis racket curiously until a short, mousy young woman walked over and introduced herself.

"My name is Abigail, and I'll be happy to help you over at my desk," she told him with a small smile.

George set his items down and had a seat across the desk from Abigail. "I want to take my wife on vacation to Switzerland!" he told her merrily.

"Oh, what a great destination!" she squeaked. "You've been there before?"

"Nope, never."

Abigail cleared her throat. "Ok, well are you looking for a resort which includes skiing and tennis?"

"Huh?" George cocked his head to one side.

"Well I see you've brought a racket and a ski with you, although you didn't need to bring the equipment to book a trip." Abigail slowly pulled some brochures out of a rack on the side of her desk. There was something funny about this man.

What was this woman talking about? He had to think quickly. "Yes, yes. Just refresh my memory… which one of these is a ski?" he asked overly casually, pointing to the items he'd dropped on the floor.

Abigail tried not to laugh out loud as she pointed to the snow ski. "That one." At least it was an entertaining day at work.

"Right, right," he agreed. He'd have to tell Verity that she had been correct. "So the other one is a tennis racket," he muttered to himself to ensure he would remember for the future.

"Yes…." Abigail agreed giving him another funny look.

"And skis are used in the snow, right?" he asked as offhandedly as he could, running his fingers through his hair.

"That's correct, sir," she replied, no longer trying to make sense of this conversation.

"Great! Then I'd like to go to Switzerland to use skis in the snow!" he told her knowing Hermione would be pleased.

Abigail showed him an assortment of pamphlets depicting snowy, mountaintop resorts and tourists wearing skis. After about an hour of asking questing, mostly about how much food was included, George had made a decision. Abigail logged onto her computer and typed away, much to George's amusement, and soon he and Hermione were booked for a week-long vacation to Lake Alpschall resort in southern Switzerland.

"Alright, your flight leaves this Saturday morning, and you are booked in the hotel for seven nights."

George wasn't too sure what a flight was. Wouldn't it just be easier to portkey to get there? Or travel by international floo? If only he had taken Muggle studies before he'd left Hogwarts!

"How would you like to pay for this, Mr. Weasley?" Abigail asked in her quiet voice.

Oh bugger! George knew he had been forgetting something. He only had a few galleons in his pocket and definitely no muggle bills. "Um…"

"We take cash, personal checks and all major credit cards," she added.

"I, well I don't have my major credit cards with me today," George replied unhappily. He wasn't even sure if Hermione had checks or cards to pay muggles with.

"That's fine, Mr. Weasley. I can hold this through tomorrow pending payment. Will you be able to stop back?" she questioned.

George would just have to figure it out later. "No problem." He quickly signed some forms, picked up his ski and tennis racket and left the travel agency. He still had a lot to do today.

George strolled back into the front doors of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and was surprised to find the enormous lunchtime crowd. Verity was up on a ladder to reach down some Weasleys' Wild-Fire Whiz-Bangs for a group of children. He thought of Fred and smiled to himself.

"It's about time you came back!" Ginny called from behind the large orange cash register, jarring him away from the group of kids. "Help!"

George let out a low whistle as he saw that the line was at least twenty people deep. He dropped his sporting goods behind the counter and quickly put on his magenta work robe. "Right this way, folks!" he called and started waiting on customers, giving away free samples of Canary Creams to thank them for waiting patiently.

"Next in line, please," he called to the last customer and turned to see a lovely brunette smiling at him. "Oh wow, you are the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on!" he told her as he waggled his eyebrows and leaned across the counter toward her. "You better hope my wife doesn't show up," he told her suggestively as he reached across the counter and caressed her lower lip with his fingers.

"You're the most ridiculous man I've ever know," Hermione told him with a giggle. She leaned in and kissed him lovingly.

"So you've told me," he winked.

"Are you having a good day?" Hermione asked him as he hopped over the counter.

He nodded. "I have a surprise for you. Do you like Switzerland? How about all you can stuff down your throat buffets? Do you have a credit card? Or a check?"

"What are you on about?" she asked him. "Are you ill?"

Ginny laughed as she finished up with her last customer. "How do you deal with him?" she asked, gesturing to George and giving her favourite sister-in-law a hug.

"You know, I really really feel for your mother. I don't know how she managed all those years," Hermione said solemnly.

"She should be nominated for sainthood," Ginny agreed.

"I'm standing right here," George piped in with a frown.

The girls laughed and Ginny changed out of her magenta robe in favor of her winter cloak. "We're going to lunch now," she informed her brother as she gestured to Hermione.

"Wait a second, I'm the boss! I should be the one telling you when you're allowed to go to lunch," George called as his wife and sister headed for the door.

"Ok, whatever you say," Ginny replied.

"Don't be more than thirty minutes or you're fired! And be nice to my wife!"

Ginny waved without turning around, and Hermione blew him a kiss as the disappeared into the grey January afternoon.

"I'll just have to tell her about Switzerland later." George popped a Canary Cream into his mouth and crept around a shelf to sneak up on Verity.

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review. I'd love to hear what you think so far!