Thanks to all who have reviewed the last chapter. I absolutely thrive on reviews and they are what keep me motivated to write more. I know that excuses really, in fact, are no excuse at all for chapters at, in this case, 10 day intervals. However, I HAVE been meaning to update. I have been really busy with dance, and I have also been very sick and not up to writing at all. I only write when I feel like it, not because I don't think I have an obligation to my readers, but because otherwise I wouldn't be putting my best quality out there, and no one would be pleased with that. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Oh, and a special thank you to Chico/Jen for just being Jen.
Chapter 3: Crisis #1
Harry awoke the next morning to Ron jumping on him, loudly proclaiming that it was Easter.
"Like I don't already bloody know that," Harry groaned as he rubbed his eyes and fumbled around for his glasses. "Aren't we up a little early?"
"After breakfast and Easter baskets, we get to begin our glorious job of babysitting the little tikes, mate," Ron explained. "Luckily we won't have to deal with the rascals during breakfast. They are already up, screaming and running about in the yard."
"Lovely. Is Hermione up yet?"
"Er, I'm not sure. You know Hermione, always the one who attempts to wake us up on weekends until we actually give in. I'll go check on her."
"No, I'll go," Harry said as he pulled his shirt over his head. "You're not even dressed yet." He didn't notice Ron's slight frown as he left the room. Ron and Hermione had dated very briefly the previous year, but it was a very impassionate relationship. It was almost as if it was a requirement for them to at least give it a go, but they were broken up within months and all had a nice laugh over it when Ron and Hermione decided to break their vow of silence towards each other. Harry recalled how he had to comfort Hermione. Since Ron had banished himself to the library in the weeks after the breakup, and Harry couldn't exactly get to the girls dormitories, Hermione had gone up to Harry's dorm and had a good cry every night for a week.
"It's not the actual fact that we broke up that is devastating," Hermione had said, red-eyed and stuffy nosed. "I'm not sure I felt anything else than platonic feeling for him. It's just that I'm not sure we can ever go back to being best friends. She had laid down on Harry's pillow, taking in its musky scent, and she relaxed slightly.
Harry had wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair. "It will be alright," Harry appeased as his shirt got drenched from Hermione's frantic tears. "Soon it will be like it never happened, trust me. Until then, well…I'm not going anywhere."
"Do you mean that?" Hermione had asked, lifting her head from Harry's shoulder. "I mean, you're not going to hang out with Ron the entire time, like in third year?"
Harry was taken aback when Hermione said this. He supposed that he had always seemed to favor Ron a bit, but that was simply because he was a male who could share the pains of confusing girls and dreadful grades. But now that he thought about it, there was tons more that he felt comfortable sharing with Hermione rather than Ron. For instance, his parents. Sirius. And that was only scratching the surface.
He had been so ashamed that Hermione would ever think he would abandon her now, though. Back then he was a thirteen-year-old boy, and now he was a mature young man. They had been through quite a lot together in those three years from third year to sixth, even more so than they had their first three years of Hogwarts.
As Harry was pondering all these moments of the past, he slammed right into Ginny's door. "Damn!" His forehead was throbbing.
"Harry?" Hermione called out. "Is that you? Are you alright?"
"Yes, to all questions. I seemed to have been on the losing side of a wrestling match with the door, though. Can I come in?"
"I'm not decent yet," Hermione replied. "Just a minute."
"Makes no difference," Harry joked. "I would quite like to see that."
A few moments later Hermione opened the door. She seemed to have ignored his comment and immediately pulled him into the room. Checking his head, she tutted. "You might get a bruise. Oh, look at that bump! It will be sure to swell to the size of an egg. Let me get you some ice." She disapparated and returned a moment later with an ice bag. Without delay, Hermione ushered Harry to her bed, urging him to lie down and put the bag on his head.
Harry gave Hermione a goofy grin. "You take such good care of me."
"Nonsense." But she was smiling.
After breakfast and Easter baskets, it was time for the thing that Ron, and after the meeting the previous day with the 27 children, Harry and Hermione, were dreading. They had no plans to keep the children entertained. Up until now it had seemed a trifle problem, and they assumed that for the most part the children would simply entertain themselves as the teenagers watched from close by, only to interfere every now and then when a scraped knee or a fight over the toy broomstick was an issue. But they now knew that these children were high-maintenance creatures that demanded attention.
The night before, Ron and Mrs. Weasley had had a rather brutal row. Ron mumbled the question of why Ginny couldn't get her lazy arse out of school to come help them. Even though he hadn't meant for his mum to hear it, she got red in the face and replied that Ginny was hard at work on a project at school and couldn't be disturbed.
"Yeah, right," Ron had retorted. "Project. And I am the one back-up- dancer for the Weird Sisters with the leather pants."
It had been the start of a long winded argument. Harry and Hermione were tired, went upstairs, and chatted for a long time about nothing in particular to drown out the sounds of the dispute taking place below them.
"Who do you think will win this argument?" Hermione had asked as they heard Ron bellow out some words that weren't suitable for children's ears.
They had looked at each other for a moment and then said the same thing at once.
"Undoubtedly Mrs. Weasley." Then they burst out in laughter.
But today things were different. Although babysitting was not exactly a serious situation, it was also not a time for laughter when there were 27 kids at hand. Mrs. Weasley had left Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the backyard with every last one of them, staring up at the teenagers with a mixture of awe, mischief, curiosity, and bewilderment. The trio stared right back. Ron was the first one to speak up.
"Ahem, er…"
The kids looked at him expectantly.
"Well!" Ron continued with a fake cheery smile. "So I guess this is our first day together. Er… just play in the backyard I guess and we'll watch you….er…unless you want us…to…play with you?"
At that particular moment, the ground shook. Birds in the bushes and trees gave frightened squawks as they flew away in a hurry as leaves blew from the rush of wind. Harry thought for one wild moment that there was an earthquake, but then he realized that the kids had started to run around and cause havoc in the yard. He gave a desperate look at Ron, trying to silently say 'What shall we do?' But Ron obviously didn't understand. He then looked at Hermione with the same desperate glance, and she looked back with a glance that said 'I have no idea."
Harry was ready to share more painful looks with Hermione, but he suddenly felt a small hand tugging at his own. Before he had a chance to look around and see who it was, he was suddenly yanked off in the other direction by the anonymous hand. They stopped just under a large tree that was quite far off from everything else. Harry finally traced the hand and found out that it had an arm and other body parts as well.
The girl who had sped off with him was very petite with auburn hair and huge eyes that seemed to take up a larger than normal proportion of her face. Her beautiful, softly curled hair was swept up into two pigtails, and she was wearing overall shorts that seemed just a tad too big for her diminutive body.
Immediately Harry was in awe of this little girl standing in front of him. Just by looking at her, he could tell she was a very unique child who wasn't like the others. He bent down so he could talk to her eye-level.
"Hello, my name is Harry Potter. Who are you?"
"Emily." Her voice was barely audible.
"Hi Emily, how old are you?"
"7 and a half." She smiled shyly. "Would you like to play exploding snap?"
"I sure would!" Harry grinned. He could get used to this babysitting thing.
Emily got the cards out of her pocket and began to take them out of the box while Harry glanced around to see how everyone else was doing. Most of the kids were playing a giant game of tag, but it was obvious that there was only one person who was attempting to tag - Ron. He was not nearly as fast as the children, so his efforts were pretty much useless. About six of the kids were playing games of Wizard Chess. Hermione was over by the fence with a few of the slightly tamer and younger kids reading books.
She looked up for a minute and saw Harry staring at her. She gave him a smile and a little wink.
Harry laughed and winked back, giving her a glance that said 'Reading, eh? You're specialty.'
Hermione gave a look back that said 'Lucky me'.
At this point, Emily was done setting up for their game and noticed that Harry was distracted. She followed his gaze and her eyes rested upon Hermione, who was looking straight back at Harry.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Emily asked Harry innocently.
"Girlfriend?" Harry said, suddenly brought back to reality and remembering he had a game to play with Emily. "Oh, no, that over there is Hermione, and we are best friends, nothing more. What makes you think that?"
Emily smirked knowingly. "You were awfully quick with your answer. Besides, I saw the way you two were staring at each other. They were looks of love." She giggled.
Harry's mouth was open. There had been people in the past that had mistaken Harry and Hermione's friendship for something more, but never a small child who knew nothing about them whatsoever. He searched for an explanation. "That's because Hermione and I have sort of a telepathic connection. Well, not really, but we- I mean, we can always tell what the other is thinking and-"
"You don't need to explain to me. Besides, reading minds isn't about giving each other lovey-dovey looks," Emily interrupted.
Harry tried to think of a comeback but came up short. He just gave Emily a goofy grin and playfully ruffled her hair. "You're too smart for your own good, do you know that?"
Just when Harry thought that they were going to have a calm, quiet babysitting job, a scream erupted in the air from the garden. He grabbed Emily's hand and headed in that direction. When he got there, 6 or 7 kids were gathered round one child, who Harry later found out to be Christopher. He was yet another red-head and about 4 years old, with an abundance of freckles on his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. However, he was not playing around and causing general mayhem like the others. He seemed to be… choking on something.
Hermione and Ron came rushing up as Harry frantically questioned the other kids as to what was going on.
"That silly Christopher! He is such a little git! He's choking!" shrieked Abigail.
"Yes, we know that, Abby, but on what?" Ron asked, panicking.
"A gnome," she said simply.
"WHAT?!?!" screamed Harry and Ron, but Hermione kept her head. She pulled Christopher upright and began to perform the Heimlich maneuver. The other kids, who were rarely exposed to muggle health, began to shriek, thinking that Hermione was attacking Christopher. Just as the gnome popped out of Christopher's mouth, screaming something about going to less occupied gardens, the kids began attacking Hermione until she was down on the ground, helpless with an army of kids jumping all over her.
Ron and Harry were wide-eyed. They hastily attempted to grab the kids off of her, but there was no giving in. Soon the backyard turned into one giant war, and it continued for the rest of the afternoon.