Chapter Thirteen; Harry, We Shrunk Ourselves
"Weasley! Weasley! Weasley!" everyone else chanted and cheered, but Harry and his father just simply turned to look over their shoulders at Hermione who suddenly disappeared. Snape quickly took after her and met her down at the bottom of the staircase. Hermione sniffed and wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve before Snape sat down beside her.
"Are you alright?" he questioned out of genuine concern for her but she just simply shook her head and sniffed again. "Listen, I know you might find this strange or even hard to believe, but I know exactly how you feel. And it hurts seeing the one you love kissing somebody else." He told her as she suddenly broke into sobs and he wrapped his arm around her and pressed his lips to the top of her head.
"There, there, it's alright. Men are rats, trust me." He told her before resting his chin on her head. That's when Harry appeared and sat down next to them and Snape glanced over at him. "Hi son, it looks like we've got us a new member of the family. What do you say, want to keep her?" he questioned as Hermione giggled.
"I don't think that my parents would like that very much." She said.
"I know, but you're still like a daughter to me. And anyway, I got you laughing again didn't I?" he questioned her before placing another soft kiss on top of her head.
"Harry I think your father wants to adopt me." She said glancing up in his direction before over at her friend.
"Don't tempt me. I already did it once. I could do it again if I wanted to." Snape replied.
"Listen Hermione, I wouldn't give up on Ron just yet." Harry said.
"Why not?" Snape asked him in which he wasn't sure if he was teasing or not.
"Because I believe that he really does love her, but he was sort of just caught in the moment." Harry said.
"Well he's going to be catching himself inside a detention if he isn't careful." Snape said.
"Thanks Professor, I really appreciate it but you can't just give him a detention for being an idiot." Hermione told him.
"I repeat, why not? I do it all of the time." He said.
"You know what I mean!" she exclaimed with a giggle.
"Well alright, I'll do it for the both of you but under the condition that you start calling me Dad." He told her as she giggled a third time.
"Alright, alright Dad!" she cried as he grinned down at her.
"That's all I ask." He said before kissing her a third and final time on the top of the head and then wrapped his other free arm around Harry who leaned his head down onto his shoulder.
…
It was Halloween, Ron and Hermione hadn't spoken to each other since the celebration in the Gryffindor common room. It had been exactly the same last year when they had both been made prefects and Ron was abusing his position. (Harry hadn't been made a prefect since he had a lot of other things to deal with the previous year) They just continued to eat their feast in silence while Harry and Ginny simply turned to look at each other.
That's when suddenly Eve ran over to their table and everyone turned over to look at her. "Can I sit with you guys?" she asked them.
"No. This table is just for people in the Gryffindor house not families. You're not even at Hogwarts yet." He told her. "Besides, I'm busy talking to my girlfriend."
"With your mouth shut?" she questioned him with uncertainty.
"No, but why don't you try shutting yours?" he suggested.
"Please Harry! Tobey is being really mean to me!" she cried.
"Well then, tell him to stop." He told her.
"I can't, he keeps threatening to shrink me!" she told him acting as if she was on the verge of tears.
"But that's impossible, he's not at Hogwarts yet either. He doesn't know any magic." Harry said when suddenly a lightbulb lit over Ginny's head.
"The bastard got his hands on my magazine!" she spat and before Harry could ask her how, she stormed over to the table and snatched the magazine out of Tobey's hands. "Give that back to me you thief!" she snapped. "Or I'll make your first two years at Hogwarts a living hell." She threatened.
"But I didn't take it!" he protested.
"Oh yeah? Who did? The boogeyman?" she questioned him sarcastically.
"Hermione did, she gave it to me because I wanted to read it." He told her.
"Yeah right you little liar!" she yelled.
"No really, I'm telling the truth. Honest!" he cried.
"But Hermione is one of my best friends, she would never steal from me!" Ginny shouted back.
"Oh really? Well ask her if you don't believe me." He said as Ginny narrowed her eyebrows and glared angrily at him.
"Fine, I will." She growled before she walked back over to the table. "Hermione, Tobey said that you took my magazine and gave it to him." She said as Hermione glanced down at her plate and remained silent looking rather guilty about it. "You didn't did you?" she asked her nervously before she glanced back up to look at her.
"I'm sorry Ginny, but I was going to hand it into Professor McGonagall, but Tobey said that he wanted to look at it real quick and that he'd give it back to me as soon as he was done with it." She explained.
"I don't believe this! I can't believe that you would steal from me! I thought you were my friend!" she cried.
"I am, it's just that I thought that that magazine was dangerous. I never wanted to hurt you." Hermione told her before she withdrew her wand. "You better watch that I don't do my famous bat boogey hex on you." She told her angrily while blinking away her hot and angry tears.
"Listen Ginny, I know you're upset, but I'm sure that Hermione had good intentions." Harry told her before she quickly lowered her wand and started turning away from the table, but before she knew she stopped dead in her tracks and fell onto the floor along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"What the bloody hell was that all about!?" Ron yelled while they slowly started to stand up on their feet. That's when Ginny widened her eyes with astonishment.
"Ron, I don't mean to scare you, but you're the size of a nose hair." She told him.
"What!?" he yelled.
"So are you." Hermione told her friend.
"What happened to us?" Harry wondered.
"I'm not sure, I was just thinking about how much I wanted to use that reductus shrinking spell on Hermione, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground." Ginny said.
"That explains it." Hermione began. "Some witches and wizards can do magic just by thinking about it, however it also works on whatever in its path when activated." She explained.
"So this is all your fault!?" Ron shouted with horror and disbelief while staring over at his sister. "Why wasn't I born an only child?" he groaned while looking up towards the ceiling and rolled his eyes before looking over at Hermione. "Alright Hermione, I realize that we're not supposed to be talking to each other but how long is it going to take to wear off?" he asked her as she bit her lip before answering him.
"Three days." She told him.
"What!? I could starve to death by then!" he cried. "Why is it always three days!?" he hollered.
"Please Ron, calm down. Like it or not we're stuck like this until then and so we're going to have to get along with each other. It'll make things a lot easier." Hermione told him.
"It would have made things even easier if you would have never given Tobey that magazine!" Ginny snapped.
"Yeah well if you hadn't of bought that thing in the first place I would still have Wilbur and all of my money!" Ron hollered.
"Who's Wilbur?" Harry asked him as Ginny gestured over to him with her head.
"His piggybank, well at least he was." She told him.
"Until those leprechauns tore him apart and made bacon out of him!" he spat.
"Excuse me but I have bigger problems. Who's going to take care of Hedwig and Cowboy? And what about my parents? They just watches us disappear right in front of them. They're probably worried sick about me!" Harry cried when all of a sudden a bunch of feet started moving around them.
"Uh yeah, I think we should worry about that later. This really isn't such a safe place to be right now." Hermione said as everyone else silently nodded in agreement before they started racing towards the door while at the same time avoiding being stepped on before they narrowly escaped out of the crack.