Stoatshead Hill
Ok so here is chappie 6!To Magikcat, yes I have made Snape a softy in this because I find it rather funny! Hope u enjoy!
"So," said Ron, as he locked the doors and began to pull out of the parking lot, "you faint at the sight of blood then."
"Don't start bringing that up!" I snapped moodily. I had been taken by brute force and shovved into a car completely against my own will! I was not in the best of moods.
"Oh lighten up!" Ron groaned, "I'm only dropping you home! That's hardly the world's biggest crime is it?"
"There is absolutely no need for you to drive me home!" I said stubbornly, "all I've got is a bit of a headache, and now you've just made it worse!"
"Me? I don't think I'm the one who's done anything! You're the one working yourself up into a state."
I scowled at him, and then regretted it. The minute his eyes met mine, I felt utterly guilty for the way I was behaving, after all, what was so bad about him giving me a lift home? I was rather tired, and if truth be told, I really did not want to say goodbye to him.
"I thought you were meant to be ditching this afternoon," I asked him suddenly, "how come you were still in school?"
"I'm not the type of skiver who wastes their whole day ditching," said Ron casually, "I'm no where near that sad! I was gonna come back into Biology once I started getting bored. The only reason I saw you lying in a heap on the ground, was because I had a view of the pathway from where my car was parked."
I flushed red as I remembered how I must have looked to him and Seamus.
Ron was oblivious and starting humming gently as he turned down another road.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked suspiciously.
Ron looked at me; he appeared to be pondering his answer.
"Cos that's what friends do right?" he shrugged finally.
"But...you and me, we're not exactly the closest of friends, we don't seem to care very much about each other..."
"Is that what you think?" Ron asked curiously.
I shrugged. Although I knew damn well that was not what I thought; I knew that I cared about him much more than I was supposed to.
"I just wonder," I said slowly, "you've never seemed to particularly like me."
"I could say the same about you towards me," returned Ron.
"Well you were the one who started it all!" I said frustratedly, turning my nose up at him and gazing out of the window. He chuckled.
We continued on in silence for a short while.
"Which road's yours?" asked Ron.
"Next one on the left," I pointed.
"Cheers," said Ron as he turned into it, "you live in a quite a nice area."
"Suppose..." I pondered, aprubtly aware of the fact that Ron knew where my house was, "whereabouts do you live? I heard that you didn't live anywhere in town."
"No," he replied, "we live just a way outside Ottery St Catchpole, in the middle of the countryside."
"That must be beautiful," I commented.
"Yeah, yeah it is," he said, smiling softly to himself.
He pulled up outside my house,
"Here we are," he said cheerfully.
"Thanks" I turned to look towards the drive, Sirius was not home yet- thankfully. I turned back to face Ron.
"What time is it?"
"Your guess is probably better than mine, you're the one wearing a watch."
"Oh!" I blushed, glancing down at it quickly, "it's two o'clock," earlier than I expected.
"Well, I best be heading back to school, unless you're ready to tell me one of those interesting theories that you mentioned at lunch."
"What! No!" I said suddenly.
"Please, just one! I swear to God I won't laugh! Honest!"
"Are you even religious?" I eyed him beadily.
"Nope! Not in the slightest!"
"Then I could take that as a form of blasphemy!"
"Oh come on! Just one! One little theory."
I sighed, I knew I couldn't resist him much longer, no matter how hard I tried; what was this power he held over me?
"Ok, promise you won't laugh?"
"I promise," he said surely, "hand on heart!" he placed his hand on his chest.
"Well...perhaps... I was wondering, is there a history of sybill activity in your family?"
I was never saying anything to him again; the minute I shut my mouth, Ron threw back his head and began to roar with laughter.
"So much for the promise!" I snapped crossly, undoing my seatbelt and leaning to open my door; it was locked.
"You're not even close!" he yelped chirpily.
"Will you unlock my door please."
"Oh," he sounded a little disappointed, "are you going then?"
"Yes! I never even wanted a lift from you in the first place!"
"Well so much for gratitude!" he said sarcastically, pushing a button which allowed the locks to spring upwards.
"Will you be wanting your truck back anytime soon?"
I was halfway out the door when I remembered it.
"My truck! Oh no, and my schoolbag! Oh I need both of those for school tomorrow! Goodness what am I going to do?"
I was bouncing up and down in a flap. Ron sat and watched me with a bemused expression on his face before he said, "Calm down dearie! Everything will be fine. I'll have Ginny drop your truck and schoolbag off after school, will that be ok?"
I paused, guilt flushing through me once again as I looked up into his too-perfect eyes. Why was I letting my temper flare out of control? Ron had hardly lost his at all today, come to think of it; I don't even think he had!
"Thankyou," I whispered, my apology written all across my face.
"S'ok" Ron grumbled, " I'm sorry for laughing at you."
I nodded my forgiveness, and then proceeded to remove myself from the warmth of his car.
" So... you up to anything good this weekend?" Ron asked unexpectedly.
I held the door open and leaned my head in so I could talk to him.
"Yes, a group of us are going hiking up Stoatstead Hill."
"Ahh good old Stoatshead, nice place. But, look don't get me wrong, it's just...you don't strike me as the kind of girl who would be happy with lugging themselves up a very steep hill."
"Believe me I'm not," I laughed nervously, "I'm terrified of falling over and breaking my ankle or something."
"Yeah those potholes can be pretty nasty!" Ron teased, "well I hope you have a nice time," he blushed slightly, "I'll um see you on Monday. Me Fred and George are starting the weekend early; we're off camping!" excitement filled his eyes.
"Camping!" I practically flinched, "you're giving up valuable school time in order to spend time in a freezing cold tent?!"
"It's called appreciating the beauty of nature!" said Ron enthusiastically, "now I suggest you get yourself inside, while I get myself back to that bloody school!"
I pushed my door shut, and turned to head inside the warm confines of my house. As he began to chug cheerfully back down the road, I gave Ron a casual wave, and then contiuned to watch him until he'd disappeared out of sight. Oh dear, I thought miserably to myself; it was going to be a very long weekend.
I never saw Ginny return to my house with my truck; come to think of it, I didn't even hear it approach! I was regularly glancing out of my window when I suddenly saw it sat in it's usual spot on the edge of the driveway, with my schoolbag in the holding pen.
Friday proceeded in an uninteresting fashion, and though I knew the exact reason for it, it didn't make me feel all that better.
Seamus' behaviour seemed to have improved since yesterday; he was in an extremely chirpy mood during English, and it wasn't entirely diffcult for me to work out the reason why.
"Notice Weasley's not in today," he said happily.
"No, he's gone on a camping trip with his two brothers."
"Camping? In this weather! Why couldn't they just wait till tomorrrow?"
I shrugged.
"How do you know about it anyway?" he asked accusingly.
"Because he told me when he was giving me a lift home," I said, eyeing him sternly; something about Seamus' attitude towards Ron was beginning to worry me, and I felt a strong need to protect him.
"How come he gave you a lift home?" demanded Seamus.
"You know," I closed my workbook, "I'm starting to feel like I'm in an interregation room Seamus! Why should it matter to you if Ron Weasley gave me a lift home?! It was perfectly fine, and it's absolutely none of yor business!"
Seamus didn't say anything to me about Ron for the remainder of the day; although Pavarti and Padma seemed to have a fair amount of interest as to why he would be so gallant as to offer me a lift home.
"He just seems so unfriendly towards you all the time,"commented Padma during lunch, "but then to go and do a thing like that...ooh maybe he's interested in you Hermione!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" I said, astonished by such a suggestion. However, although my head denied any sort of hope; my heart swelled to the size of a balloon in response to Padma's insinuation. I hit it firmly with my hand.
As per normal, it was raining again as I made my way out to my truck at the end of the school day. Seamus still had high hopes towards our hike up Stoatshead Hill tomorrow, but at the rate this weather was going, we were going to have a better chance of sliding down it instead of walking up it!
"Hey Hermione!"
I turned at the sound of my name; Dean Thomas was making his way over to me.
"Hi Dean! Oh it's good to see you out of hospital, how are you?"
"I'm good," he said cheerfully, " the docs' finally saw fit to discharge me! Um but anyway listen, I was wondering if I could ask you something actually..."
"Oh really?" I said curiously, oblivious to what his question might be, "ask away."
"Well...you know the summer ball's about to come up and um, people need partners and that... well I was wondering if you would like to go with me?"
I froze on the spot.
"Oh" I said, completely thrown, "um, I'm afraid I'm not going to be in town that night Dean. I'm going to visit my mother."
"Oh right," said Dean, looking rather disappointed, "I heard you'd said that."
"Then why did you still ask me?"
"Coz I kinda hoped that you'd just said it to ward other people off."
I blushed slightly, "I'm sorry Dean, I really am going to be away that weekend."
"It's ok," said Dean, doing his best to hide his chagrin, "Guess I can ask someone else. Anyway, you going on that hike up Stoatshead Hill tomorrow?"
"Yes," I replied, grateful for his swift change of subject, "although I daresay we might have a bit of trouble getting up it if this weather doesn't improve!" I glanced up at the clouded sky worriedly.
"Yeah," said Dean, "speaking of which, you'd better get yourself into that nice undamaged truck of yours before we both catch hypothermia!"
I nodded gratefully, my body felt completely and utterly numb; it had never been so cold since I'd first arrived in town. If we were really unlucky we might end up being cursed with some dreaded snow! That would be just my luck!
I woke up the following morning wishing I'd never said anything about the possibility of there being snow; for as I routinely glanced through the curtains of my bedroom window, I saw a thick, heavy blanket of the crisp white element covering the ground.
"Ha ha! You're gonna have a fun time hiking in this weather Hermione! Just make sure you've got y'eh snow boots on."
"Thankyou dad, that is most thoughtful." I said bitterly, whilst excusing myself from the breakfast table.
"Just looking out for you kid, you and I both know that you're not the best person to talk to about keeping y'eh balance!" he broke out in fits of laughter.
"My balance is perfectly fine!" I retorted, tying my red woolly scarf around my neck, and covering my head in a thick woollen hat.
"If you say so!" replied Sirius chirpily. I was quite suprised by his laid back attitude; snow is actually a very dangerous hazard, and I above all people was in no position to see it in any other way!
Sirius watched me as I flung a backpack over my shoulder and began to say my farewells.
"See y'eh later sweet, n' seriously, make sure you're careful when walking up that bloody hill; I don't want anything else happening to y'eh."
"Thanks dad, I'll make sure I'm careful," I gave him a wave and then preceded outside into an awaiting snowy blizzard.
I arrived at the meeting point, which consequently was Seamus' house, in suprisingly good time due to my speed limit being 20 miles an hour. Everyone else was huddled in a small group outside the front door, their faces hidden behind thick coats and scarves.
I turned off the igniton in my warm, cosy truck; and clambered out towards my friends who called out words of muffled greeting as I approached them.
"Hey!" said Seamus, who quickly trudged over to me, "brilliant weather isn't it! We're taking a sledge up so we can all slide back down the hill! Won't that be cool!"
"Um, yes, yes very cool Seamus," I replied nervously; I now needed to think up a swift excuse for not riding such a wooden death trap.
"Hey Hermione!" said Padma, her face half hidden behind a bright blue scarf, "how are you?"
"I'm ok thanks Padma, how are you?"
"I'm good. Not too sure about this weather though; the boys' think it's an amazing opportunity to go toboganning, but I'm not entirely sure it's gonna be all that safe."
"Oh come on Padma!" whined Seamus, "we've been looking forward to this trip for days! Don't spoil it now; wher's your sense of adventure!"
"Tucked up nice and safe in bed!" she replied gloomily. I giggled, Seamus threw me a reproachful look, but his attention was quickly occupied, as he started grouping people into the two cars we would be taking in order to get to the hill.
"With any luck we'll get snowed in along the way!" mumbled Padma moodily. I kept my mouth shut, and was placed into the second car with Seamus, Neville, Parvati and Ernie Macmillan.
The ride to Stoatshead was quite comfortable, everybody chatted away happily, and I felt a huge sense of belonging with the people who encouraged me to laugh, joke, and bring out a bit more of my fun side.
When we reached the hill (much to Padma's dismay we weren't snowed in), I was temporarily mesmerized by the sheer size of such a product of nature. I marvelled at the fact that I hadn't been able to notice it before; for it was definetely big enough to be seen from our side of the town. As we were removing ourselves from the warm comfort of the two cars, I caught sight of three figures aproaching our group through the wisps of snow falling. Their crunching footsteps drew everybody's attention, and a couple of us moved forward in order to gain a better perception.
"You lot must be as crazy as we are! We knew this would be a perfect opportunity to go trekking recklessly up Stoatshead Hill." shouted a friendly, familiar voice which I recognized.
"Harry!" I called out; everyone looked at me in suprise.
"Hermione? Is that you?"
"Yes, oh it's good to see you again!"
"It's great to see you too!"
We trundled with difficulty towards each other, and when I was close enough to get a good look at his face, I saw a big happy smile plastered across it.
"How have you been?" asked Harry enthusiastically, "It looks like you've settled into school pretty well," he gestured to the others behind me, who had now started approaching in order to find out who these mysterious visitors were.
"Yes, I have. These are my friends: Seamus, Padma, Parvati, Neville, Dean, Ernie, and Lavender."
"Nice to meet you all," replied Harry warmly, "My name's Harry, and this is Cedric and Viktor," he pointed out the two tall boys stood either side of him; both of them smiled cheerfully. Harry turned to look at me.
"Would it be alright if we joined you all up the hill? There is after all, only one way to go."
"Of course!" I replied happily, my consent supported by eager nods and whispers from the others behind me.
Harry smiled, and he, Cedric and Viktor began leading the way upwards, whilst engaging in cheerful conversation with Dean, Neville and Ernie.
"Seamus," whined Parvati, "are you sure it's safe to be walking up the hill in this kind of weather? maybe some of us should stay down here at the bottom..."
"Oh no please Parvati!" said Seamus, "we've come all this way; besides if you stay down here you'll most likely freeze to death, won't she Hermione?"
"Oh yes, I would say definetely!" I teased alongside him. Parvati heaved a huge sigh and clutched hold of Seamus' hand as they started to walk up the snow covered hill. Padma, Lavender and I brung up the rear.
"So have you two got dates for the summer ball yet?" asked Lavender, as we slowly but surely made our way upwards.
"No," I said wearily, forgetting the significant fact that I supposedly wasn't going to be in town that night. Although Padma and Lavender didn't know that yet.
"Me neither," said Padma, "although...I keep kinda hoping that Dean might ask me, but I think it's gonna be very unlikely."
"Then why don't you ask him?" I suggested. Padma looked at me interestingly, I went on: "I think that you ought to take control, I mean, you're a smart and independent young woman. Why not go for it?"
"Do you know what Hermione, I think you're right!" said Padma chirpily, " yes...yes, I will ask him!"
We carried on for the remainder of the journey in slience; the hill was getting much steeper the higher we progressed up it, and lots of people were now being held back by painful stiches.
When we finally made it to the top, we found that there wasn't even much of a view due to the foggy white blizzard which consistently swirled around us. Seamus tried to rally the atmosphere by setting up the toboggan, upon which only some of the boys positioned themselves with eagerness.
As the group of people on the toboggan slided swiftly back down the hill, the rest of us began to follow them at a much more steady and comfortable pace. I found myself walking alongside Harry and Viktor, both of whom I enjoyed engaging in conversation with.
"So," said Harry, "I hear you are a survivor of a miraculous incident."
"Oh no," I groaned, "have you been talking to Dean?"
"We might've touched upon conversation whilst we were walking up with him," smiled Harry and Viktor. I scowled in response.
"Doesn't sound like a subject you enjoy talking about," observed Viktor.
"It's not," I said sternly.
"How come?" asked Harry.
"Because I've not had a break from it since it happened!"
"Ok," replied Harry calmly, "we just wondered because, when Dean was telling us, the whole thing sounded a bit wierd; apparently somebody called Ron Weasley pulled you out of the way in a matter of seconds."
My heart fluttered a little at the sound of his name, "um yes he did, but not necessarily in a matter of seconds...I think Dean's been exaggerating a bit too much."
"Perhaps," mumbled Viktor.
"Do you know the Weasleys?" I asked casually.
"We've come across each other..." said Harry slightly awkwardly, "but we-"
"The Weasley's don't come here," cut in Viktor seriously, and with that he sped up and continued to walk alongside Neville.
I looked at Harry curiously. He understood the look on my face.
"I'm guessing you caught that did you?" he asked with certainty.
I nodded, "what did Viktor mean? He looked so angry by my mentioning of the Weasleys. What is it they've done?"
Harry scratched his nose, and then turned to look back at me.
"Ok, have you ever heard of the legend that exists between the half bloods and the pure bloods?"
I shook my head.
"Well," explained Harry, "they are two sides of a specific type of being. The side which mine and Viktor's families supposedly descend from is the half blood side; but others such as the Weasleys have come from the pure blood end, you with me?"
"Yes," I replied, intrigued.
"Now, according to legend, those who exist of pure blood look down on those who are not like them," he gestured to himself and me," some prefer to keep themselves to themselves, and live happily with their snobbery and stuck up opinions. But others feel that it is their duty to cleanse the world of anything which exists below pure blood; so they kill and recklessly murder thousands of innocent people; half bloods and muggles alike."
"What's a muggle?" I asked.
"Someone like you," said Harry simply.
My mouth was slightly agog, "and so...do you think the Weasleys feel a need to cleanse the world of anyone who is not like them?" I asked tentatively.
"I don't know," replied Harry musingly, " the half bloods and pure bloods do not get on! But... take into account they are only stories; myths that've been passed down from generation to generation. Who knows if they're really true!"
I didn't say anything; my mind was whirring with the information that Harry had just put forth to me. How could Ron Weasley's family come from such a brutal bloodline? I knew they were not the most friendly people within the school, but it had never occured to me that any of them could be capable of murder! As I thought this, my head was suddenly filled with a horrifying image, involving Ron ruthlessly torturing a helpless victim...
"Hermione? Are you alright? You're looking a bit pale."
I rubbed the light layer of sweat settled across my white forehead. The sudden perspiration had nothing to do with the amount of exercise I was doing.
I glanced at Harry, who was looking at me with a worried expression on his face.
"I'm fine," I assured him, "just a little worn out with the exercise that's all!"
"Oh," said Harry, "well, we're nearly back now; I can see the others loading the toboggan back into the car."
I did my best to put on a cheery attitude as we bid goodbye to Harry, Cedric and Viktor, and began making our way back to the other side of Ottery St Catchpole; but for the remainder of the afternoon and throughout the entire night, my thoughts were filled with disturbing visions of Ron and Harry locked in some kind of vicious combat...