Quidditch Matches & Cooling Off

Hermione took a deep breath and looked around. "Wait," she started, "isn't Ron going to play?" She hoped that if she could get Ron to be her sub, she wouldn't have to play.

George answered her. "No, he's the scorekeeper," Ron walked out of the shed with a Quaffle. "Ron doesn't really play all that much, I don't think he likes it, really."

Hermione gulped; that was her last hope of escaping this punishment given to her by Ginny. And now that hope was gone.

Hermione's palms started sweating as Ron walked to the centre of the field, Quaffle in hand, and stopped.

"Alright," Ron looked at both sides. "The first team to get to one-hundred points wins. No pushing, kicking, biting, spitting, or spell use-" he threw a glance at the Twins, "-in this game, or your team will be disqualified. Ready..." Both teams pushed off the ground, Hermione wobbling into the air. "And...go!" He threw the ball up into the air.

Bill caught the ball and immediately threw it to Charlie who dove under George's outstretched arm and passed the ball to Harry, who up until this point had been flying near Hermione lest she would fall. When the latter saw the ball coming towards her, she ducked as Harry grabbed it with one hand and raced the rest of the way to the scoring hoops, earning his team ten points.

George swerved around so he was facing Hermione. "Hey Granger!" he called with his hand cupped around his mouth and Hermione looked up. "You let the wrong team score!" he grinned as Fred sniggered.

Hermione reddened and looked at the ground below her. "Sorry," she said, mostly to herself.

"Oh go easy on her guys, it's her first time playing," Bill scolded his brothers as he flew over to Hermione. "It's ok, really, it's just practice," he tried to console her as the twins flew around the opposite end of the field.

"Yeah, if we were playing for the House Cup we would've hit a Bludger towards her ages ago-got her out of the way," George said as he threw to Fred, who made a pointed look.

Ginny, who was on that end and heard her brother, scowled up at them. "Don't think you're all high and mighty; Hermione could easily beat you both in a duel!"

At this, Hermione looked over to Ginny and the Twins, who had stopped circling and were looking right at their sister.

"Don't get us wrong, we know that, sis-" Fred started with a look to George.

"-but it's just so much fun to criticise her Quidditch playing," George ended with a grin.

Ginny just purses her lips and crossed her arms. Hermione looked toward the twins. "It's alright," she said, "I know I'm rubbish. I don't normally play."

Fred flew over to her with a lip-sided smile on his face. "We know, Granger, we're just poking fun. You never really know how bad you are until you try, right Forge?" he finished, calling over his shoulder to his other half.

George flew over to pat Fred on the back. "Right you are, Gred. We didn't really know how badly we could do in school until we stopped trying, and that's kind of the same thing, yeah?"

Fred nodded as Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, if it's ok with you, I'm going to put myself back on solid ground and read for a bit. I'll come back out later, but I just want to rest for now."

The twins nodded in unison. "That's alright, 'Mione, we'll make Ron come up and play; he hasn't been on a broom for ages, I bet he's worse than you," George looked pitifully at their younger brother. "Oi, Ron! You're going to be Hermione's replacement, so you'd better be ready!"

Ron, who had been sitting under a tree with Ginny observing, looked up at the players and gulped.

"Don't be silly, George," Fred chastised his twin, "no one could ever replace our Hermione."

George feigned remorse, placing a hand on his chest. "Of course, my sincerest apologies, dearest Hermione; how could I ever think that anyone, especially Ron, could replace your brilliance and beauty?"

Hermione shook her head at the boys' nonsense and landed (somewhat unsteadily) near Ron.

The twins watched her dismount and George turned to Fred and gave him a look. "'Our Hermione', huh?"

Fred continued watching Hermione. "Well, she is ours."

And with that, Hermione walked into the house and the game resumed.

Forty-five minutes later found Hermione still reading, but she was being distracted by the sounds of the game outside. Going over to the window, she watched as the boys swirled around each other, trying to steal the ball. She glanced up towards the sky and saw that it was darkening quickly. Deciding to warn the others of the upcoming weather, Hermione marked the page in her book and made her way downstairs.

The players were just dismounting their brooms as she walked over to them, and the boys were talking about the match.

"That was brilliant, Harry," Bill said in awe of the younger boy. "I've never seen anyone at Hogwarts play that well, let alone a Seeker."

"Yeah," added Charlie, "those dives you spun out of-I couldn't even attempt half of them that well!"

As the boys continued praising Harry and discussing details that Hermione had missed while inside, the latter went over to talk to Ginny.

"You know," she said to get the younger girl's attention. "I think it's going to rain soon."

Ginny looked up at the sky. "Yeah, looks like." She turned to her brothers. "Hey you lot, if you want to get wet, fine by me, but I'm going inside now before it pours."

The boys looked at her, and then looked up. The twins looked at each other and shrugged, but followed the others to the shed to store their brooms and head inside.

Before they got to the house, however, Hermione felt a few drops on her head and looked at the clouds. She kept walking and tripped, catching herself on her hands at the last minute.

"Hermione! Are you ok?" Ginny hurried to her fallen friend.

Hermione sat up with a wince, "Yeah...I just don't know what I tripped on."

"Was it your feet?" Ron asked with only a slight amount of sarcasm.

"No, Ronald," Hermione shot him a look, "it wasn't my feet." She looked around her and saw that she had tripped over a stray gnome who was now on his way towards the hedge. Before the gnome made it under, Fred ran back to catch it. He picked it up, spun it over his head, and chucked it over the hedge and into the field.

By this time, more rain was falling, and the group was getting soaked. They hurried towards the door of the Burrow and stood inside the house, still near the door.

"Hey George," Fred turned to his brother, "how long has it been since we've been out in the rain?"

George just shrugged. "I'd reckon...Merlin, I don't remember."

"Exactly," Fred stated. "Why go inside with these buggers when we can freshen up after our game right out here?"

George smirked. "That sounds like an excellent idea, brother mine."

The two rain back outside and started charming the water to hit each other in the face.

"Come on, you lot!" Fred called over to the others. "You're missing out on-"

He didn't get to finish. George had aimed perfectly towards his mouth. The rally to call the others out was now forgotten by Fred, who was currently trying to spit the water in his mouth out at George who was running through the garden.

"I guess the rain couldn't hurt," Ginny said to Hermione before she grabbed her hand and pulled her outside. "Let's go!"

"I don't know about this, Gin," Hermione tried to resist her body being pulled by the younger girl as the remainder of their group jogged past them and over to the twins. "I've never really cared for rain much."

"Oh Hermione, come on, it'll be fun!" Then Ginny's voice softened and Hermione noticed that she'd taken a smirk. "And he's out there, too."

Hermione tried glaring at her (but failed miserably) before finally speaking. "...Oh, shut up."

She let Ginny pull her the rest of the way outside.

"Hey, glad you could join us, ladies!" Fred said to them as they approached.

"Well, we decided that it doesn't hurt to have fun once in a while, right 'Mione?" Ginny turned to her friend.

"Yeah," Hermione answered nervously.

"I just can't believe that Hermione agreed to come out here with you, Gin. I would be a losing man if I'd bet on it." George said with a surprised, but happy, expression.

"I can have fun too, you know, George," Hermione defended herself. She crossed her arms over her chest in indignation. "Just because I like to ready and study,-"

Fred cut her off by putting his hands on her shoulders. "He didn't mean it like that, Hermione. He only meant that we thought that you'd rather be inside and dry; he meant he didn't think you'd want to hang out with us."

That calmed her down a bit. "I guess...I'm sorry, George. It's just, me being who I am, I'm always perceived as the 'uptight, rule-following bookworm', which I can be sometimes, when it's important, but not all the time."

George nodded and Fred pulled her in to a side-hug. "I get it, Hermione, and I'm sorry. But hey, let's not let this spoil our fun!"

He ran a few feet away until he turned around and looked up at the house. He picked up a pebble and chucked it at an upstairs window. A few seconds later, Percy stuck his head out the window.

"What do you need?" he asked, rather annoyed.

"Nothing, just wanted to say 'hi'. Can't I say hi to my older brother without anything else?" George faked hurt.

Percy just narrowed his eyes. "No."

George grinned up at him, "You're right, I can't!" He then proceeded to aim a water-ball directly at Percy's window.

Percy was frozen as the ball of water hurtled towards his face, drenching him and his surroundings.

"YOU'VE JUST SOAKED MY PAPERWORK THAT I'M SCHEDULED TO PERSONALLY DELIVER TO MR. CROUCH TOMORROW-"

"I'm sure it wasn't that important in the first place, Perce, if they let you work on it!" George called back, knowing that his comment would anger his brother more.

Percy was absolutely fuming. He slammed his window shut and moved out of view.

"Well, that was entertaining," George grinned at his twin and the girls.

Realising that she was still being held by Fred, Hermione pulled away gently and pushed her hair behind her ears as it was now drenched and she wanted to get it out of the way. Fred just put his hands in his pockets and stared intently at Percy's window.

"Yeah," Ginny, seemingly oblivious to what had just happened, called back to George. "But you're going to hear about that for the rest of your life now."

George just shrugged. "It was fun though."

Hermione went to stand closer to Ginny. "I think I'll go inside now; I've had enough rain for today."

Ginny nodded. "I'll come with you."

As they walked up the stairs to Ginny's room, sounds of the boys outside followed them.

When they reached their destination, Hermione hurried in and Ginny locked the door behind them.

"Ok, what happened?" Ginny prodded as she sat on her bed and Hermione paced around the room.

"I don't know!" she said, grabbing handfuls of her hair and trying to take deep, slow breaths. "He hugged me."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I saw that. I mean, what happened? Why did you pull away from him?"

Hermione closed her eyes. "I don't know...I mean, I couldn't have just stayed like that, could I? It would've been even more awkward if I hadn't left."

"Well, now it's going to be awkward because you pulled away, so you don't win either way."

"It will only be different it he acts like it is. I hope I won't come across as acting strange around him, but if I do, please, punch me."

Ginny stood up to go console her friend. "Hermione," she said. "Hermione," she said again when the girl didn't look at her, "you need to tell him. For all you know, he could feel the same way about you."

Hermione stood up and continued pacing. "What if he doesn't, though? It'll ruin our friendship, and Mrs. Weasley would be confused, so would Ron and Harry, so I'd have to explain to them-"

Ginny shook her head. "You're just thinking of all the bad things; what about if he does fancy you?"

Hermione calmed at these words. "That would...that would be the most wonderful thing...I would be so happy, Ginny. Truly happy. I can't explain it better than that."

Ginny nodded in agreement. "I know-that's the way I feel about Harry."

Hermione looked confused. "But...didn't you tell him at the World Cup?"

"I told him I was only joking, that I only said that so you would tell me who you fancied."

Hermione's face softened. "Oh Ginny..."

Ginny dismissed her condolences. "It's alright, really, it's probably good that I told him I was joking so that he doesn't feel obligated to like me back; you know Harry. Besides, he might fancy me someday on his own."

Hermione nodded. She sincerely hoped that two of her best friends would get together. That would make her happy, too.

"So, Gred, what was that thing with Hermione out in the garden?" George wiggles his eyebrows suggestively at his brother.

Fred just rolled his eyes. "Nothing.

"It was not 'nothing'. You were holding her, for starters."

"I was trying to be nice because you had upset her!" Fred shot at his twin.

George's hands flew up. "I was just joking, but she did seem rather upset. You could've let her go after you hugged her, but you didn't, so why didn't you?"

Fred sighed. "I don't know, I kind of forgot what I was doing, to be honest. I just felt like I needed to hold her, I guess."

George's eyebrows raised and his lips disappeared into a thin smile. "You should tell her that, see what she says. You never know, she might say the same thing back."

"I doubt it, since she pulled away."

"Well maybe that was because she likes you and didn't want it to be awkward."

Fred only scoffed. "I'll tell her someday, George. Just not now."

"While we're still at Hogwarts?"

"I don't know."

"It's going to be harder to tell her when we're done; we won't see her everyday anymore, you know."

Fred nodded and sighed again. "Someday."

I hope you like this chapter, I made it myself (haha, I'm so funny!)

Anyway, I have NO IDEA what happened to the previous version of chapter 9...oh well. It's fixed now.