Chapter 5. Catching Up With The Redheads
A/N-Hey everyone back again. Thanks for the Reviews its always amazing to see how well that people like the story. And to Brian I didn't want to keep using the A/N to continue our convo but for some reason FF wont let me Pm you. Yes you are correct in the fact that Hermione choice in a carreer of dueling is a bit unlike her but then again the whole point in leaving was to change herself. She chose something that she was good at, which was dueling. Her warding was extremely helpful but warding is not used in dueling. Ive already stated that Hermione was the best at what she was. Harry himself said that normal Unspeakables can atleast hold their own if not win against Hit-Wizards. For the to be inducted into the Unspeakables because of her dueling skill is a testament of how far above her peers was, but she still hasn't had the training that Unspeakables go through. Harry has had the past four years with the full backing of the DoM to improve his skills. This means that he had trainers, books on spells that no one outside the DoM has access to, old tomes with magic Hermione doesn't know about, and masters of practically any subject at his disposal. And your right he did lose his drive for the first year after shes gone but Neville clearly states that after is near death experience something changed with Harry and im telling you that it was more than just being able to handle his booze better. He needed something to lose himself in and he chose to become the most powerful person he can be. And to be fair even if Harry and Hermione took the Hit-Wizard class together Harry would still be better than she was. They were taking the same classes in Hogwarts and he was a head of her. Now that he has had more advanced training it wouldn't make since to put them on the same level.
Harry was sitting on a bar stool at the far end of the bar. Motioning to the bartender that he would like drink and to keep them coming, a large mug of Goblin Ale appeared in front of him. Taking a large swig of his drink he used those few seconds to get a good look at the few other people that were sitting around the pub. All in all, things could get messy here very quickly if all the wrong things happened at once. A alpha wolf and a couple lower wolves, probably his right and left hand men, were in the corner laughing up a storm being the usual loud that werewolves are. On the other side of them were two older looking Vampires who were slowly getting more and more fed up with the commotion. Other than that there were just a bunch of dirty, intimidating looking guys sitting around and all of them were probably quick to draw wands if need be.
When the door swung open everyone in the pub stopped talking and looked to see who it was, Harry who was included in that group wanted to slam his face into the the counter in front of him. The small figure of a woman started to make towards Harry when the two Vampires decided that she was too good to let go. " Hey pretty, how about you come and sit with us?"
Hermione looked at them and flipped them off. " How about you piss off?" She hissed in a very un-Hermione like way. The rage on their faces were evident and in the blink of an eye they were both standing on either side of her.
" What did you just say bitch." One of the asked and other went to spin her around. Quicker than most could follow, two wooden stakes appeared out of thin air and were lodged into both of their chests. They both collapsed into piles of ash. " She said piss off."
Everyone just looked at her for a while before the werewolves just started laughing and everyone went about their business. She quickly walked over to Harry who was now taking another swing wishing that he hadn't came here. " What the hell are you doing here Miss Granger?"
" If you hate me so much then why did you just save me back there? You could have just let it alone and let me deal with it myself." She asked.
" Just because I don't want to be around you doesn't mean that I was going to let those two turn you into a god damn human raisin and they would have. You saw how much people care in here, I killed those two and the damn werewolves are still going on about it. Why the hell were you provoking them?"
Looking down she answered. " I knew that this had to be a tough place. I figured that if i didn't let them just bully me around then I would be good. I mean i'm a Hit-Witch I can handle any body on the streets no problem, I couldn't tell they were vampires."
" Well now you do so you should probably leave. You aren't cut out for this place and I have nothing that I want to say to you at the moment. Leaving for five years then just coming back and hoping for what we had, you dont have that right. You hurt a lot of people, and many of them I consider friends and family, you were that once but I don't know who the hell you are any more." He said throwing a few galleons on the table he made his way out the door leaving a sad Hermione looking at his back once again as he walked away. Knowing that following him again wouldn't help the situation any she just waited a few minutes and left. Walking along the paths of the dark alley she was quickly finding out that shew as getting more and more lost. She turned a corner and saw out of the corner of her eye that someone was following her. Summoning her wand into her hand she kept walking and making turns here and there trying to lose the guy but he was persistent. Seeing an open door she quite ducked inside and waited for him to walk by. As soon as he had passed the doorway she quickly ran up from behind and stuck her wand under his chin. " Who the hell are you and why are you following me?"
A tap on her shoulder made her spin around and she came face to face with none other the Croaker. " I was given a tip that a potential employee of mine might need safe harbor out of Knockturn Alley. Now why would you be anywhere around this place?" As he said this the man in front of her disappeared in a puff of smoke.
" You made a clone of yourself out of magic?" she asked fairly impressed.
" Well with you being a Hit-Witch and all I figured that you might take my head off before asking questions so I was covering my ass. Now stop avoiding the subject." He said as the walked along the path.
Signing Hermione hung her head. " I was here trying to talk to Harry. I know that its only the first day but I figured that maybe we would at least be able to talk a bit, instead I get myself into a worse mess, a friend battered and bruised, and two vampires staked."
" Do you regret it? I mean leaving and all?" Croaker asked her.
" Not at all! I loved my time there, I got to make new friends and made it up the ranks because of the work that I put out. The last five years have been amazing but maybe I shouldn't have left everyone out, well almost everyone out. I will never be able to talk to them about it because they will only know about how they had to move on without me here."
" Well you know that Harry isn't the only friends that you had before. Maybe you need to go talk to the others and see how they react. From what ive seen and been told Harry had it the worst which means that he will probably be the hardest to reconnect with." he replied knowingly.
She looked at him with a huge smile on her face. " You're right, I probably go to see the others. I dont know how they are going to take it but it can't be any worse than Harry's take on it."
" Well it looks like that the Diagon is right up there so if you think that you will be able to make it there by yourself I have things that require my attention. It has been a while since ive talked with anyone like this besides Harry, I think that you will be getting that job no problem." were his final words to her before he apparated away leaving her to walk the rest of the way.
When she made it to the alley she quickly turned down the walkway and started heading towards one of the largest shops in the alley. To say that she was blown away was the understatement of the year. The Weasley Wizard Wheezes had doubled in size since the last time that was there, and the man with the tophat now had legs as well and was standing fifteen feet over the store making cards disappear into thin air instead of the rabbit under his hat. Opening the door, her amazement was even more than when she saw the outside of the building. The pandemonium that was around before was only amplified a hundredfold now. The inside had been expanded to triple of what it was originally and fireworks, paper birds, fanged flyers, and all other sorts of magical things were flying around but none of them ever seemed to hit anyone or anything. The shelves were covered top to bottom with all sorts of creative things that she would have never thought about using in pranks. In the middle of taking it all in she never noticed the owner who noticed the pretty girl that had walked in. The sound of apparition behind her caught her attention and she came face to face with the two of them.
" Now from the way your just standing there I am going to guess that you've never been here bef-"
" HERMIONE?" He yelled at the same time before crushing her in a bone crushing hug. In the midst of the chaos going around them hardly anyone stopped and noticed the two embraced in the middle of the store. " What the bloody hell are you doing here and when do you just come back from leaving the face of the earth?"
" Well I had to come see my favorite prankster didn't I? I came by but this is so much more than I expected, you've really grown the store since that last time that ive seen it." she laughed.
Fred looked around proudly, " You think that this is amazing? This is one of five stores that we've expanded since you left my dear. We pretty much put Zonko's out of business so we bought them and started selling everything at half of what we did at first. That really brought business in, after that it was just finding places that we could expand to."
" Oh my god that's amazing!" She said thinking about the revenue that must be coming in.
" Yeah but that's enough about me. How long have you been in town?" He asked.
She smiled, she was so glad that he wasn't angry with her. " This is my second day back actually. I was told that I should probably go around and meet all of my old friends so here I am."
" Well whoever told you that was a very smart bloke or lass. I cant wait till the others see you, everyone is going to be so excited." He laughed throwing his arm around her.
" Not everyone is so excited to see me." She said sadly.
Over exaggerating a hurt expression he stopped and turned to her. " Alas, I should have known that I wouldn't be your first choice for a visit, even if I am the best looking of all of your friends here. Now who wouldn't be glad to see that pretty little face of yours?"
" I met with Harry on some not so good circumstances and now im in a bit of a mess." she told him.
" Ah, I understand now. You could have showed up in his bed dressed in nothing but whipped topping and you would have been in a mess. Maybe a different type of mess but it would have been messy." He said giving her a wink which got him a punch to the shoulder. " I was kidding, god you hit harder than Ron does. Of everyone that I can think of Harry probably would be the one that is going to have the hardest time with your return."
" Yeah so ive been told. I had no idea that everyone would be upset without me around." she said truthfully.
He huffed before answering. "What were we supposed to do without our other little sister running around keeping us out of trouble? Well at least thats what you were to some of us, to others you were an extra daughter, a sister, and then to some something else. Most of us had others to help them, but Harry was alone."
" Yeah ive been told that too. I dont know what to do about it though. I cant change what I did and I dont think that I would even if I could. But I also dont want him to hate me either." she told him but then it registered what the last thing that he said was.
" Wait you think he hates you? Hermione you are the last thing one the face of the earth that Harry could hate. You just have to give him a bit of time and space, trust me Harry will come around. Plus with everyone being so glad to see you there is no way he can stay stubborn forever. You should stop by and see mom and Gin. Dads probably at work but they should be home. Gin is with mom more than she is at her own house so there is no doubt that they are both there. Hell Ron might be there as well, I know that he didn't go into work today." Giving her another hug and a kiss on the cheek he wave her off to find the others and as she was walking out the store she heard him yell " EVERYTHING FIFTY PERCENT OFF!"
One quick apparition later she was in the countryside looking up at the same house that she remembered from five years ago. She had a huge grin on her face as memories came rushing back to her mind of being here all those years ago. Not a garden gnome was out of place and she felt like she was here just yesterday as she walked up the way. She got about halfway to the house when she noticed the door start to open ever slightly and then a red streak shot out of the door and when she noticed who it was she started to run as well. Meeting halfway, strong hands quickly threw her up in the air before catching her and giving her a hug that rivaled that of his brothers. Burying his face in her hair she heard him whispering. " Ive missed you so much, promise me that you will never do anything so foolish again, thats my job ok? I never thought that I was going to see you again. You dont know what that was like, never put me through that again."
Tears of both sadness and happiness welled up in her eyes at his words. She was so happy that he wasn't holding it against her, but just by his tone and the words that he said she could tell that he was much more mature than he was when she left and she was sad that she wasn't able to watch him become what he was now. She could hear stories but it would never be the same as actually being there and being a part of the process. " Im so sorry, im never leaving again. I should have been here but I had things that I had to do before I was ready to settle down in a stable life. I hope you understand."
" I dont really. I mean I really dont know what you had to do on your own, but then when did I ever know what you were talking about? I dont know why your back or why you left in the first place but I know three people inside who would love to see you."
The both walked up to the house arm in arm and Hermione could see the smiles on two of the faces that were looking back at her and a look of almost jealousy coming from the other. Ginny ran up and tackled her to the ground with her hug leaving the both sprawled in the grass in a mess of tangled limbs. After a few minutes of rolling around and laughing they both picked themselves up and Mrs. Weasley was the next to give her a hug, and Hermione found out where the boys got their hugs from because Mrs. Weasley's blew both of theirs out of the water.
Getting a good look at Ginny she noticed that she was wearing an outfit that was similar to the one that she knew that she wore when playing quidditch at Hogwarts. " What are you wearing Ginny" she laughed.
Looking aghast at the question she screeched. " Are you telling me that you never followed quidditch when you were gone?"
" Sorry Ginny, but that's a big fat nope. I didn't have the time, plus it's only fun when im watching someone that I know." She said and Ginny smiled.
'" Well that's good to hear because i've been the seeker for the Holyhead Harpies for the past two years! Now you can come and watch me play whenever you want to!" she said proudly. Hermione went to comment but Mrs. Weasley spoke up first.
" I cant believe that you're really here." Mrs. Weasley said, giving another hug. " You're so grown up now, it seems like just yesterday you all were in first year coming off of the train. Welcome home love, how about we go inside and I can fix us something to eat?"
" That sounds lovely Mrs. Weasley." She said as they filed into the house. Just like the outside, everything was exactly the way it was the last time that she was here with not a single thing out of its place. Noticing that Lavender was eyeing her carefully, Hermione decided to break the ice. " Its nice to see you again Lavender."
" Isn't it? I know its been forever since we've seen each other. I love what you did with your hair, when did you change it?" She asked way too sweetly.
Playing along Hermione decided to just answer her question. " I did it about a year after I left. I had never been to a magical hair stylist but im glad that my friend took me there. It's been that way ever since, they said that it was just me and I have to say that I agree. I was fine with my brown bushy mess but I like this so much better."
" Yeah I have to say Hermione that you look smoking with that hair. You can play that whole dark and mysterious card that all the boys are dying for." Ginny agreed nudging her with her shoulder.
" Oh please, me dark and mysterious? I might be a Hit-Witch now but thats only for work, there is no way that im dark and mysterious." she laughed as a plate of sandwiches made its way to the middle of the table.
" Hermione dear, did you say Hit-Witch? I bet that would be so exciting, you and Ron could talk forever about that line of work." Mrs. Weasley said taking her place at the table.
" Oh really?" Hermione asked surprised. " Are you a Hit-Wizard?"
" No, im actually the second in command over in the auror department. The only reason that I haven't switched over to Hit-Wizard is because in a few more years Ill be head of the department." He said before biting into his sandwich. It was now that Hermione finally realized how much had changed since she had left. The quiet Harry that she once knew was now an Unspeakable with enough power and skill to take Dumbledore in his prime, Ron was the highest ranking auror in the DMLE, Fred had build an empire of pranking stores, and Ginny was a professional quidditch player. She already knew about Neville being the Herbology teacher at Hogwarts, and Luna being a spell crafter like her mother was before her. It made her wonder what else she missed out on during her years of isolation.
" I bet she could still kick your butt in a duel." Ginny teased.
Ron threw up his eyebrow in a playing manner. " I wouldn't so so sure, i've stalemated Kingsley before so im no slouch."
" I guess that we will just have to wait until the dueling tournament won't we. I don't plan on losing so quickly this time, it was bull that I had to duel Neville my first match!" Ginny huffed but Hermione just gave her a confused look.
" Oh yeah you don't know anything about it. The last two years Professor McGonagall hosted a dueling tournament at Hogwarts for anyone who wants to enter. Neville won it last year but I hardly think that it surprised anyone. Neville got crazy good with a wand over the last few years, thanks to the lessons that Harry was giving him and everything, but Harry never duels, say that there no one there to make it a fair fight. We were thinking about getting some of the ministry people and professional duelist to sign up this year so he doesn't have a choice." Ron said.
" Yeah you came back at the right time to, she is hosting it two days from now. The last two years its been kinda small but it is supposed to be really something this year." Ginny said but Hermione was looking down at the table. Ron noticed it and almost automatically made the connection.
" You've seen him haven't you? Harry I mean." he asked.
" Yes, he didn't take it too well either. He found out something that I was hiding from everyone and it didn't help any." She said quietly.
Ron was iffy but he asked anyway. " What were you hiding?"
" When Neville was in America a few years back we ran into each other. I made him swear not to tell anyone, well Harry found out today and it didn't go well. He was dueling Neville when I found them, got Neville good with a banishing charm when I distracted him for a second. Im sorry that I never told you." She told him. She looked into his eyes and saw a wide range of different emotions. Confusion, hurt, but most of all understanding and that made her let out a breath she had been holding.
Looking around the table all of the Weasleys seemed to be going through the same type of emotions while Lavender sat there looking around awkwardly. Ginny walked around the table and with a loud crack her hand connected with Hermiones face. " That is for leaving, and lying to us."
" And this is for coming back." She said as she threw herself at Hermione and gave her a long heartfelt hug. Everyone else was looking around not believing what had just happened but when Hermione returned the gesture the pounding hearts were put a little more at ease. Returning to her seat they all began to catch up on everything that Hermione had missed out on since she left. The following hours were spent with plenty of laughs, teasing, some tears, and a bit of silence. When Mr. Weasley got home another bout of hugs and stories were passed around while supper was cooking dinner. Almost as if they could smell the food, as soon as dinner was coming out of the oven Fred and George showed up. George who had been working at one of the other stores when Hermione stop by and saw Fred was pleasantly surprised when she was sitting at the that they all would just stay the night and catch up, they all dug in. Hermione had almost forgotten how good Mrs. Weasleys food was and she was going back for thirds before everything was said and done. After they ate they all sat around the fireplace and talked until one by one they slowly fell asleep. The last thing that Hermione thought before sleep took her was that it would have been better if Harry had been here.
A/N- Well there you have it my friends. She's back and most everyone is liking the fact that she is back. It will be interesting to see how this turns out since I dont really know where im going with this myself. Next chapter Dueling Tournament. Cant wait to write out some epic battles.