Chapter 06:
It was Sunday! Molly was very busy in the kitchen but she, as usual, did not let anyone help her. So all the young adults found themselves sitting in the backyard, wondering what to do. Hermione had been smart enough to carry a book with her so she was bent over on it, Oliver sitting beside her, musing yet again about her addiction to the written word. All the Weasleys saw this and decided to help Ginny along to get the odd couple close.
"Quidditch" Ginny finally screamed, as if wondering why she hadn't thought of it straight away. That word got Oliver's attention on her, his along with every other person present there.
"Let's play quidditch, girls versus boys. We'd all love to kick our boys' asses" she added mischievously.
Hermione looked up, heard her out and went back to her book as if the idea did not appeal to her one bit. "Fleur and I will sit this one out," Percy drawled pompously, "for obvious reasons of course." A lot of teasing, name-calling followed as they all got up to make their way to the broom shed. Suddenly everyone turned to look at Hermione. As if feeling their eyes on her, she replied without even bothering to look up from her book, "Not happening guys."
"We need you Mione, otherwise we'll be one short" Ginny begged.
"Uhm… Ginny… you'd be rather better off with one short instead of with Mione on your team" Harry reasoned, trying to save his best friend from show casing the utter humiliation that her flying skills actually were.
"Shut up Harry, unless you want to be bat boogied" Ginny came back.
"Shutting up dear" Harry ploughed, hands stretched up in surrender.
"You're so whipped Potter," all her brothers cried out. He simply shrugged, refusing to open his mouth.
"You don't want me on a broom Ginny," Hermione warned.
"Oh but I do," Ginny pestered on.
"Come on Mione. Don't be a spoilt sport. Tell you what, we'll get Harry to catch the snitch 5 minutes in the game and we can all leave happily for lunch then," Ron reasoned.
Hermione glared at them all, "Fine," she screeched and put her book down, taking care to mark the page with her book mark before doing so and got up. "Don't come crying to me when you girls loose," she warned her team.
"We've got this in the bag," George mused.
"In your dreams Weasley," Angelina challenged, "we have a strong team too."
George cocked his brow at the challenge, "Wanna bet on that darling?"
"I think we should. The loosing team does the winner's bidding post lunch today," Alicia supplied helpfully, a little too sure in her teams abilities. All except Hermione had played on their own school teams. The boys had Oliver and the girls had Ginny, both professional quidditch players for two of the best teams in the nation. She was sure it would be a good match of skill!
Everyone agreed. "The girls are so going down," the golden trio mumbled, the boys happily and the girl shudderingly.
Oliver kept mum all through the exchange, just watching Hermione's expressions. She couldn't be that bad at it he wondered, reaching into his pocket to resize his broom, one he always carried along for just such emergency situations. Everyone noticed what he was doing and laughed. "They're gonna make a brilliant couple! I just can't wait to see what happens next!" was the general consensus.
Unfortunately, he was wrong about Hermione's prowess on the broom. So…. so wrong! She is a blaspheming abysmal flying disaster! They had made her a keeper for some reason, probably because that was his position, he thought. But her primary purpose was staying on the broom, never mind actually blocking the quaffle. She was just so nervous! First the broom refused to go up to her. Harry helped. Then the broom sensed her nerves and kept flying in random zigzag patterns taking her all over the place. His team mates were actually taking turns to steady her instead of scoring! Maybe that was the ploy, mused Oliver, wondering how a witch as smart as her could be such a sore sight to watch on a broom. Thankfully, Harry caught the snitch in half hour. For probably the first time ever, Oliver was glad that a quidditch match was over that soon. He just could not watch her anymore! Every one zoomed down to congratulate Harry and tease their fiancées. All except Oliver, who flew over as close to Hermione as he could, given her erratic movements.
"Lass that's enough. Let's go down now."
"Do you think I'm not trying to do that?" she snapped.
"Hold your thoughts in."
"What?!"
"Your broom is sensing your erratic thoughts. Hold them in check. Think of simpler peaceful things and I'll come over and pull you up. Okay?"
"What! You'll pull me up where?" and this brought on a whole new episode of extra ziggier and zaggier moves from the broom.
"YOU'RE GONNA END UP KILLING YOURSELF AT THIS RATE!" he bellowed at her.
"DON'T YOU THINK I ALREADY KNOW THAT!" she hollered right back.
"Mione, he's trying to help you. Can you NOT murder him right away?" Ginny shouted from the grounds below.
Hermione flushed and tightened her hold on the wayward broom.
If she holds it any tighter its gonna snap Oliver realised.
"Hermione. Shut your eyes and take a deep breath. NOW!" he snapped. What happened next had everyone's eyes either popping out because of the sheer audacity of his plan or sealed shut, because of the very stupidity of it!
Oliver took a deep breath, brought his long legs on his broom and stood up on it, jumping towards Hermione, holding her in his arms and then plummeting towards the ground at full speed.
Her broom broke into four different pieces just as he pulled her off it. Before she could register what was happening, Oliver was shielding her from the flying pieces of her broom with his body pointing his wand at his broom, accio-ing it to him. It came just when they were about 20 feet off the ground. He straddled it immediately, pulling her along and pulled it high up to ensure they didn't crash land. It was all too much for Hermione to take so she buried her face in his chest, fisting his shirt as she did so. His one arm went around her instinctively, rubbing her back in calming motions, "It's okay sweetheart, I've got you now. Don't worry. You're fine. I'll keep you safe. I promise." He turned his broom around smoothly and slowed it down to land. The minute their feet touched the ground, they were surrounded by her surrogate family, everyone's face twisted in worry.
It went on for 10 minutes before Mrs. Weasley called them in for lunch.
!
Lunch was a boisterous affair with a lot of teasing and planning on what the boys should get the girls to do. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley senior excused themselves on the pretext of an afternoon nap and let the young couples mingle.
"How do you want to do this guys?" George asked, throwing a very naughty look in Angelina's direction. She flushed scarlet. Bill saw the exchange. George was happy after a very long time and he wanted to him enjoy that moment.
"How about we each work out a way to deal with our own spouses and intendeds for now and then before dinner we can think of something for them to do together" Bill suggested. Every man happily nodded. Oliver already knew what he'd do with Hermione.
George pulled Angelina out of the homestead before most could even get up. All the girls gave her a naughty grin and wink while she tried to keep up with George's pace.
Ginny came and pulled Harry away, "Time for my punishment" she muttered and pulled him to her old bedroom at the Burrow to a chorus of "eeeww" from her brothers.
"Wanna rest for a bit darling?" Bill asked Fleur and on her nod led her to his old bedroom at the Burrow.
Before Percy could open his mouth Audrey warned him in no uncertain terms, "You didn't play, you don't get a go" and sauntered out to the orchards. "As good a place as any" Percy murmured and followed her out.
"I know just what to do with you" Ron told Alicia, "You're playing wizarding chess with me, till they all come back" Ron smirked while Alicia made gagging noises but sat at the small table nonetheless while Ron set the chess board up.
"You lass are coming out with me" Oliver said and pulled her to the backyard again.
Once there, Hermione finally found her voice and turned to thank him for saving her life. He simply shrugged it off as if jumping off his broom while 80 feet up in the air didn't mean too much to him.
"Why so scared of flying lass? I thought you've flown on dragons before this."
"I was never good at the introduction to broom class back in our first year, so it kind of just scares me since. Plus, I flew a hippogriff to his freedom and rode a dragon for mine. All these episodes just freaked me out completely. I can't fly since, not that I was ever able to before that. Everyone has tried to help, but I just can't get my mind to relax."
"You realise the longer you let the fear sit, the stronger your fear will be?"
"Trust me, it's pretty strong now."
"I can teach you to fly safely" he offered kindly.
Her eyes bulged out with her fear. "NO! No, I am good. Thank you though."
"I'll take care and not let you fall," he said a little more forcefully.
"I'll hex you if you say that again," Hermione snapped, fear etched all over her face.
He just grabbed her wand hand's wrist and pulled her towards him, tugging her hand behind his back to arrest her movements. "Trust me on this Hermione. I'll teach you how to fly. Even if it's the last thing I do" and he brought his broom out, holding her close to him as he manoeuvred her on it with him and off they flew together.
Hermione yelped as they zoomed off high up in the sky, Oliver only wanting to make sure her screams didn't attract undue attention. "That's enough lass" he said sardonically, troubled by her screams.
Then she went on a rant, "you…..you….you don't understand I can't…I'll fall…..it's a broom for crying out loud…I've tried…never done… please please please ground now…anything else….not this…please….."
"Hermione, relax" Oliver was feeling her fear through his broom that was sending little shivers under his firm hands. "If you don't, this time we'll both fall" he said, trying very hard to control his broom.
"How do you think that'll help me relax?" she screeched in a very high pitch, very non-Hermione-like voice.
"Can you just relax woman? You're missing something very beautiful here. Look….."
Hermione who was trying very hard to turn around and burry her head into Oliver's chest continued her rambling, "I don't care… I don't care… Wood please ground…. I swear I will do anything else, not this…I promise I will never bore you with excessive information about anything or ask you to be a member of S.P.E.W., I'll never leave my books lying all around at your house, I won't sleep in the library, just not this….please I beg of you…..please….ground….."
Oliver who had no idea whatsoever about S.P.E.W. found her rambling cute but it was stretching the limits of his prowess on the broom. He usually just carried one of his spare brooms with him, keeping two of his best ones safe for practises and matches. "Lass, as cute as your rambling is, I really need you to quieten up. Now." And she still continued on… as if she hadn't heard him… and on seeing her death grip on the broom, Oliver was sure she really was not listening to anything he was saying. "Ahhh…" he screamed in frustration at her obduration and fisted one hand in her hair and brought her lips on his, the best way he could figure to shut her up. She froze and he continued to press his lips to hers. They tasted of strawberries and pumpkin juice, he mused. He had started the kiss only to shut her up, but once he started it, he couldn't get himself to stop, instead nibbled lightly on her lower lip.
Hermione remained in a frozen stupor for a bit before she finally tentatively kissed him back. He groaned and brought her up closer to him, freezing his broom's movement. They just waited there, hovering up in the sky, kissing. Minutes passed or hours, neither knew. When they finally came up for air, Oliver spoke to her softly, his voice gruff, his hand at her nape as he looked at her pink kiss-swollen wet lips. Licking his own lips, he brought his eyes up to hers to find her eyeing his mouth. He smiled, "Trust me Hermione, we've got this. All I'm asking from you today is peace. Just try to stay calm, that's it. Nothing more. Can you do that? Just for 5 minutes, then I'll take you down."
She nodded, stayed quiet but looked blanched.
"I promise I won't let anything happen to you lass."
"And you."
He arched his brows but nodded, "And me. Now look ahead, you're missing a beautiful scene."
No, I'm not, Hermione thought looking at the handsome scot a little shyly before turning around. The view from up here was beautiful, but she wondered if it was worth the price she was made to pay, thinking of her meeting with the Minister of Magic scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'll make it right for you Oliver, one way or another, I promise.
On that thought Oliver turned the broom around and got it down near the homestead. By the time they reached the ground Hermione all but jumped out of the broom. All the others were sitting in the backyard, enjoying the evening, chatting. Harry and Ron took one look at her ashen face and were by her side before Oliver could even dismount his broom. They were both hugging her and rubbing her back and comforting her, while Ginny ran in to get her some water. No one else seemed bothered by that except him and Alicia, the two new additions to the brood.
The golden trio sat at the stairs, with Harry on her right, resting Hermione's head on his shoulder and Ron on her left, rubbing her back. "You did well, Mione. We are proud of you." Ginny came out with bottle of water that Hermione thirstily drank. "I'll live," she whispered a tad hoarsely and smiled. Then, as if searching for Oliver, she looked at him and smiled, "Thank you. You're the first one who got me to shut up on a broom," she said.
That got everyone's attention on them. "Wonder how he did that?" George asked wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"Yeah, she actually bit me when I tried to take her flying," Bill agreed.
"She hexed us both," George added with a faraway look in his eyes, everyone knowing who the second one of that pair was. "Very creatively too. We'd get boils on our butts every time we so much as thought of her and brooms in the same breath." Angelina just squeezed his hand at that, he squeezed it right back.
"She pushed me off the broom even before she climbed up on it," Ron informed, "I still have the scar from the fall," he said gingerly rubbing at his elbow.
"I don't even remember what she's done to me the past eight years every time I tried to get her on a broom," Harry conceded. "Trust me, after what I went through on the hippogriff and the dragon, I really didn't care to remember the other times at all. She scratched my back and chest when we flew Buckbeak and I was sure I'd need hearing aids after she screamed all the way from London to the Highlands when flying the dragon!"
"We hexed each other and then kissed and made up," Ginny winked.
Everyone laughed, tension broken. Oliver kept thinking about the dynamics between the trio and he saw the same doubts in Alicia's eyes at dinner. Ginny however had been with the three the longest and didn't really seem to notice anything amiss. Oliver just took solace from that and went back to eating. The food really was delicious!
The boys tortured the girls a little more, with the girls promising a retribution next Sunday. And the evening finally came to a close. Before they left, Molly invited Oliver, Angelina, Alicia and Audrey to all the Sunday meals. All of them happily agreed, having enjoyed themselves. The boys went to drop the girls home while Hermione got up to walk with Oliver.
"Floo or apparition?" she asked.
He preferred the floo but he wanted to chat a little with her so he chose to apparate instead. She walked with him till the apparition point outside the wards. Both silent, not knowing what to say. Just before they reached the final ward, Hermione asked him to the ministry ball, he smirked and agreed, saying he'd thought she'd never ask and then winked at her. Hermione blushed. As if of its own accord, his hand moved up to her cheek, rubbing at the colour running high on them, smiling at the effect he was having on her. "Owl me the date, time, venue and dress code. And we'll arrange for everything else from there," he said and bent down to peck her on her lips. "Let me know if you're free over the week and we'll arrange to meet again, okay?" She nodded.
"Oh and by the way Hermione, we'll continue with the flying lessons every Sunday I'm here." Her eyes widened at that and he smiled his crinkled smile and apparated away with a crack.