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CHAPTER 13.
The next day started plesantly for Hermione, in the form of a letter and picture from Viktor Krum, who she had remained very close friends with after the Triwizard Tournament in her fourth year, and who still begged her to visit him on a letterly basis.
The picture was of viktor and herself at the yule ball, smiling and waving , she laughed delightedly, having never seen this photo before, and knowing how rarley he smiled. In the picture, Viktor had one arm around her waist, and he looked down at her fondly, as she laughed and waved, oblivious to his longing look.
She was sitting at the breakfast table reading over her letter, smiling to herself, when Harry piped up, "Who's the letter from Mione?"
Before she had a chance to answer Ginny cut in, with a furtive glance at Charlie she said, "Viktor Krum." a little too loudly.
"Blimey, the quidditch player?" asked Tonks, staring at the photo hermione showed her, Hermione nodded.
"You still write to that oaf?" asked an incredulous Fred, who tried to read the letter over her shoulder, only for her to bat him away.
"The oaf could write?" George intoned, earning a scowl from Hermione.
"Fred, George." Hermione cired indignantly, scowling at him, "He was not an oaf, he was a sweatheart and.."
"Drooled all over you." George cut in, scowling.
"Followed you around like a lost puppy?" Harry suplied.
"Stalked you in the library for months before talking to you?" Ginny asked.
"Thought you were fifteen." Fred said, uncharactaristically grimly.
"He...We were just friends." hermione said.
"Yeah," said Ginny disbelivingly, "Friends who went to the yule ball together, a friend who still writes to you every other week from across the continet. " Ginny pointed out, making hermione flush.
"The thing he would most soarly miss, in the second task." harry pointed out.
"Ermione, I remeber 'im with you during ze tournament, ee was...amoureux." Fleur said seriously, but with a mischevious glint in her eye. Hermione just looked at her hoplessly.
"Is he still nagging you to visit him?" Harry asked, putting the final nail in the coffin.
All eyes turned towards her, as she sighed and nodded her head.
"What?" The twins cried, making hermione cringe.
"No way Mya, you could do loads better than him." George said passionatley, whilst fred muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "ruddy pumpkin head."
Hermione shot Ginny a dark look, that clearly said, 'this is all your fault', Ginny just smiled angellically.
"Really, we were only ever friends." she promised, crossing her fingers in her lap, something Ginny noticed.
"Lier." she shouted gleefully.
"Ok, well we're only friends now, He kissed me once and then went back home. TO BULGARIA! Happy?" she questioned.
"Yes." was ginny's cheerfull reply. Bill at the same time said;
"He kissed you...but he thought you were fifteen, and he was doing the tournament, so at least of age..." He trailed off, looking mildly horrified. His rection was met by eye rolls from all of the women in the room.
The picture was passed around, everyone comenting on how happy they looked, how bessoted Krum seemed, and how cute the younger Hermione was, teased the twins.
Charlie had remained quiet throughout this exchange. He felt unnaturally strong feeling of dislike towards this boy he'd never properly met, and that worried him. He had never been the jelous type, always cool and collected when it came to...well, everything really. Yet here he was tying his wand in a knot, over some bloke Mya was only friends with! what has she done to me? He thought desperatley.
Charlie was pulled from his inner chrisis, by his older brother. "C'mon Charlie-bear," he said, using the nickname he'd had as a child, making him blush, and causing the others to giggle, "Quidditch." He said simply.
Today hermione chose to read inside instead of watching the others play. She wandered about the house for a bit, grabbing a few books from the library, before going of in serch of somewhere quiet and sacluded.
She enjoyed exploring the old house, with it's hidden rooms and ample history. She was on the first floor, somewhere she only ever passed through on the way to her bedroom, when she heared a scratching coming from the smallest drawing room. Pulling out her wand, she went to investigate, thinking to herself that she wouldn't last five minutes in a horror film.
The room looked empty, the noise coming from a filing cabinate that was housed againsed the wall oposite the door. A boggart she quickley decided. The lone voice of reason in her head was screaming at her that this was a terrible idea, but morbid curiosity won out, as she opened the cabinate slowly.
There stood her parents, no, a copy of her adoptive parents. They smirked at her, "You where never our daughter." Her 'mother' said coldly, before turning her back.
Her 'father' never said a word, he only looked at her, with such dissapoontment on his face, that it made her feel sick. Made her want to throw herself at his feet and begg him to forgive her for not being what, who, they wanted.
He then also turned his back on her.
"Ridikulus." she said, only for the boggart to transform into Harry and Ginny, holding hands.
"Ron was right about you, only good for one thing." The boggart Harry said, "You actually belived that I could love you as a sister." He snorted and boggart Ginny just laughed cruelly, then they too turned their back on Hermione.
"Ridikulus." she choked out again, before seeing the twins, then bill and fleur, Mr and Mrs weasley all leaving her, Lupin, Tonks, all looking dissapointed, hurt, betrayed, all finally seeing that she wasn't worth their time.
"Ridikulus." she gasped out, tears now running down her face in ernest.
When it was boggart sirius' turn she almost threw up.
"I always knew you thought of me as a sort of uncle figure. Pathetic, as if I would lower myself to any sort of relation with you." He finished nastily.
"Ridikulus." She sobbed, tears wracking her petite form.
Finally, she saw Ron before her, standing over the body of a clearly dead Charlie. Hermione's knees gave out, sobbs wracked her body.
"It's all your fault." was all he said, but it was enough.
"Ridikulus." came a strong voice from the doorway, there stood Fleur, with her wand raised, next to an ashen Mrs Weasley, both with tears in their eyes.
"Oh Ermione." Fleur said sadly, as she kneeled beside the sobbing girl. "Eet ez all right." But hermione was inconsolable, shaking from the ferosity of her sobbs, curling herself into a ball, wrapping her arms around her leggs and hiding her face.
Mrs Weasley for once seemed to have nothing to say, she mereley wrapped both girls in a hug, staring at the spot on the floor where her dead son had just been, and the three of them cried.
"How long..." Hermione managed to ask.
The women understood, "Long enough." Was Molly's reply.
"Come on dears, lets have a cup of tea." The three made their way back to the kitchen, Fleur still tightly holding a sniffling Hermione, whilst Mrs Weasly busied herself with the kettle, the other two sat, still not letting eachother go.
"You know zat will never 'appen, don't you Ermione? We would never leave you." Fleur whispered into Hermione's hair. Hermione simply cried her answer. Both women were over come by a fresh wave of tears.
"Why would you sink zat?" She questioned incredulously, tears marring her breathtaking face, her lips slighly swolen from crying.
Hermione couldn't find the words to explain herself, she just pulled her leggs up before her on the wooden chair, and wrapped her arms around them once more, crying into her knees.
Just then the kitchen door opened, and in trapsed the wearey quidditch players, all of whom stopped short at the sight before them.
Ginny rushed over, "What happened?" She demanded, falling to her knees before her two crying sisters.
Hermione, who was still hiding her face, let Fleur fill Ginny in, in hushed, broken scentances, when she had finished, Ginny was also close to crying.
"Bloody Ron, you musn't belive him Mi, I keep telling you, you are worth it." Hermione choked on her sobbs, rasing her head, and letting the new comers see her swolen, tear stained face for the first time.
"Oh Mi." she said sadly, joining the hugg.
After a few seconds she pulled back, looking at Hermione, "We love you Mi, for who you are, not what you are, you are special to all of us." She murmered, low enough for only the women to hear her.
At this Mrs Weasley joined them again, and all four started crying into eachothers shoulders.
The men, not knowing what was going on had decided to work on the theory of safety in numbers, and had all congragated in a group in one corner of the kitchen, looking mildly terrified, none of them being particulally fond of crying women, espesially so many of them. They all stood there awkwardly, shuffling their feet, and exchanging paniked glances, silently begging eachother to do something.
In the end Harry stepped forward, looking like he did before facing the horntail in his forth year. The men behind him gave a collective sigh of relief, they had all dodged a bullet.
"Foolish boy." bill remarked quietly, the others snikered and nodded their agreement.
Harry slowly edged towards the crying women, wondering if he should bow, like with hippogryphs?
Then they seemed to notice him, "Oh Harry." Hemione wailed, as she and Ginny grabbed him, and pulled him head first into the hug, where he stayed looking extreemly uncomfotable.
Yes, the other men now knew they had made the right decision letting someone else go first.
Once again the kitchen door opened, heralding the arrival of Tonks and Snape. Tonks upon seing the crying women went to join them, and after hearing the tale, joined the hugg, sniffing, her bubblegum pink hair turing a soft grey colour.
She lifted Hermione's chin, and looked her straight in the eye, "Your self worth comes from you. Nobody else." She said sternly, in a voice low enough that only those in the hug could hear her, before pulling the younger girl into a bone crushing hug.
Snape on the other hand shot the men in the room a glance, all of whom stared at him beseechingly, hoping for salvation, he mearly grinned at them evily, and slowly backed out of the room.
"Clever git." Sirius grumbled under his breath, the other men nodded in agreement.
"Right." he then said brightly, the men looked at him as if her were mad, No sudden movements, no loud noises, what is he doing?
"Tea." Sirius said triumphantly, appealing to their inner brit, hoping to regain some decaurum. It seamed to work, for the five crying women released a traumatized and slightly damp harry, like a veenus flytrap in reverse. Harry just blinked stupidly, still in shock.
"Women." he found himself saying again, and once again, then men could only nod their agreement.
Only when he was sure that it was deemed safe, did Snape once again venture into the kitchen, enteing slowly, with the look of a man intent on crossing a mine field without getting his leggs blown off. With him he carried a letter, which was housed in a thick parchment envalope, baring the Grinngots seal.
He went and stood in front of Hermione, the girl's face was still blotchy and moist. Sighing he handed her the letter, then in a move of chivalry none of them expected from him, offered the weeping girl his hanckerchief. She accepted it with a sniffed thanks, to which in only nodded curtly in responce, before vacating the kitchen in a mass of swriling robes, with the occupants of the room string after him.
"Sweet man." Said Mrs Weasly, obviously approving of the display of genteel manners.
Sirius however snorted, "Sweet?" he asked incredulously. Though nobody would agree in front of Molly, most of them had thought something along the same lines.
"I don't know mind," tonks began, a thoughfull look on her face, "There's something about him, can't put my finger on what..."
"The voice." Hermione, Ginny and Fleur all said together, earning horrified looks from the men in the room.
"You're not serious?!" Fred demnded, looking from woman to woman.
"Closley followed by the hands." Ginny said, looking at Fred, to which Hermione nodded her agreement.
"But mainly the voice," Hermione spoke to Tonks, "Just think of the last time you heared him laugh..." Hermione's eyes glazed over, and the men in the room where now looking at eachother, questioning their sanity.
Tonks thought for a moment, then, "Like silk." She almost purred, making the other girls chuckle throatily. Hermione noticed Lupin's face darken into a grimace.
"Absolute torture." Ginny agreed, much to the horror of her older brothers.
"What?" Harry asked, looking at Hermione and Ginny as if he'd never seen them before. The women just shrugged.
"It's the tall, dark mysterious thing, i think. And he's always very well spoken, old fashioned manners, genteel when he wants to be." Hermione said, looking at the men in amusement.
"And the hands." Ginny reminded, a wicked gleam in her eye that made Fleur and Tonks catcall and wiggle their eyebrows.
"I'm going to regret asking this, but, what about the hands?" George asked, looking as if he were fighting vomiting.
"Well, their just so..." Tonks trailed off, waving her hands innafectually.
"Capable." Hermione purred, nodding in agreement, getting a few strange looks. Charlie's eyes had darkened, and he was looking at Hermione with black fire burning in his gaze.
"Yes, so...capable." Tonks almost moaned, playing it up to annoy those watching, Fleur began to giggle.
"Potion master's hands..." Fleur said, making the other three burst int giggle's along side her.
"Master indeed." Tonks said, winking roagishly at the hystericall women, as the men all yelled and covered their ears.
"You lot must be starved for male companionship if you think...master?" Sirius began desgustedly, only to trail full circle back into horror, the women ignored him.
"Did you ever wonder how he keeps his hands so soft...what with making potions for a living?" Ginny asked curiously, Hermione shrugged. Tonks on the other hand raised an eyebrow.
"And how would you know about his soft hands?" she teased, winking lecharouly, and making Bill, Charlie and the twins pale in horror. Ginny however had burst into laughter.
"What actually goes on in detention." She managed to choke between paroxysms of giggles. The other gilrs started to laugh to, and the weasly boys seemed to relax a little, but not much.
"Can we please talk about something else?" Bill begged, looking at Fleur in worry, as if affraid Snape might come back in and steal her away.
Hermione started to giggle again, watching the pouting curse breaker, she then cought Charlie's eye, and the laughter died in her throat. He was watching her hungrily, like a hunter with his pray. His eyes ablaze with a passion she didn't fully understand, but wanted to.
She was a mouse, transfixed by the snake's gaze, she couldn't look away. Around them everyone had moved on, talking about other things, but Hermione and Charlie where still locked in eachother.
She could feel herself blushing, taking in the handsome dragon tamers sexy smirk, and half closed eyes, the way his gaze travelled from her eyes, to her lipps, where they stayed. She needed to look away, her breathing was becoming shallow, and she had to fight the impulse to run from his empassioned gaze, and hide in embarassment.
With a hurculean effort, she tore her eyes from him, and focused on the table before ger, whilst she regulated her breathing. Nobody else had noticed their little moment, which was a relief.
From her seat at the table, hermione stared curiously at her letter Snape had given her, fingering the thick emerald wax seal upon in. Sighing, she thought, 'here goes nothing', and tore into it, pulling forth several shiefs of yellow parchment covered in royal blue ink. They read thus;
Miss H. C. Greenwood,
We at Gringotts were recently made aware of your situation by Albus Dumbledore, may we be noted as giving you are most sincere condolences for your losses. We are writing to you to inform you of your inherited estate, which is now yours rightfully by blood and title.
Upon your reaching magicall majority, over a week and a half ago, you became eligable to acces all of the accounts in your name, left to you by your deceased parents. Purley in liquid assets, you are now the benefactor of some 5,000,000 galleons within your vaults, not to mention some 3,000,000 in stock and other worldly goods, excluding two family homes, and miltiple other propertys, the detais of which are enclosed for you. Enclosed you will also find a Gringotts Rune Card, which is accepted in all magical retailers in place of physicall currency.
Your family has been one of the top priority cliantell for this bank for the last great many centurys, and we hope to continue to serve satisfatorally. There are no keys to your vaults, being, as they are, great in age. They will open for you, and you only, by recognition of your magical signature, in order to activate this, you need only hold the coin enclosed within the letter, it will do everything else.
Congratulations on becoming an extreemly affluent young lady, we wish you luck with your future endevours.
If you should require any further assistance, we here at Gringotts would be only to happy to help you.
Yours in service,
Ragnok.
Chief Goblin of Gringotts Bank,
Diagon Alley, London.
Her hands were shaking as she turned to the list of property she know owned.
* Fairwood Manner - Estate of 100 Acres, South Wales. (Self sustaining.)
*Fiabesco - Estate of 300 Acres, including Truffle Orchards, Lake Garda, Italy. (Self sust.)
*Mavr Pobeg - Estate of 500 Acres, Ural Mountains, Russia. (self sust.)
*Monsrti tine - Estate of 1000 Acres, Currently a Dragon Reserve, Romania. (Self sust.)
*Lile de la fee - Estate 50 Acres, Of the coast of France. (Self sust.)
*Lua Comun - Estate 100 Acres, Sothern Ireland. (Self sust.)
Hermione dropped the letter once she had finished reading, and stared at it stupidly for a moment before pinching herself. Ouch. Nope not dreaming.
Silently she stared at the bank card, which looked a bit like a muggle creddit card, only not plastic.
Hermione lifted the gold coin that was enclosed, and held it flat on her palm, examining the inscripton.
"Bill, any ideas...?" Hermione asked, showing him the coin. He looked perplexed, and shook his head.
"Why?" He asked.
"I think it was just sent to me by your boss." Hermione said destractedly, the coin in her hands had gotten warm, and was vibrating slightly. The kitchen watched in amazement as the coin shone a bright blue, and vanished, almost like a portkey would.
Hermione just stared in shock at the place the coin vacated.
Right. Well...ok then.
She handed the letter to Ginny who was sitting next to her, looking at her curiously.
"What's...?" she grew silent as she read, then suddenly; "BUGGER ME!"
Hermione just sort of nodded absently, still not entirley sure how she should react.
"Ginevra Weasley." Came Molly's shout, "What on earth has gotten you..?" Ginny shoved the letter under her mothers nose.
"Goodness." was all she said, sitting down heavily.
By this point Fred and George where both reading over their mothers shoulder, "Blimey." was their initial response, followed by gleefull grins, "What you gonna buy, Mya?"
Ginny and Hermione snorted, the Ginny said gleefully, "We're going shopping again, think of all the fun we'll have in Hogsmede during the year."
"Because shopping went so well the last time?" that caused a few titters from here and there. The letter having now done a full roation of the room, had once again reached Hermione, who pockated it.
Harry bent next to her, to whisper in her ear, "Ron's going to..." he didn't need to finish. Hermione new that this would make the allready frought situation with Ron, almost impossible. She sighed, brilliant. Harry just graimaced at her, squeezing her shoulder sympatheticaly, before going beck to his chair.
Sirius came to stand next to Hermione, wraping an arm playfully around her shoulders, "You're now almost as loaded as I am Kitten." he joked, making Hermione laugh.
When did her life become so rediculous, oh yes, when she found out about magic, thats right.