Aw hell... it's my first fic ever and I've already managed to screw up the disclaimer! Okay, you know the drill. Blah blah blah, I don't own them, blah blah blah, no money, not a cent. Hell, even the plot isn't mine... it's a challenge fic. Please review... if you don't tell me what I'm doing wrong, how on earth am I ever going to learn?
Enjoy!
*****
"I wonder how warm it is outside? It certainly looks warm. And just look at how clear the sky is today! Look at all those firsties flying around out there! You know, this'd be a perfect time to go out on the pitch and..."
"Conjuctiva!"
Ron's eyes suddenly became thick with goo, then began to crust shut. Harry glanced up from the large table they shared and his Transfiguration assignment, then gave an 'ugh' of disgust. A handful of first and second years throughout the common room looked up and gave similar 'ewwws' and 'ucks' of their own.
"Aw, bloody HELL Hermione! What'd you go and do that for?!" Ron tried to rub the muck from his eyes.
"Because you won't stop staring out that window! Now we all agreed to give up a Hogsmeade Saturday to finish studying! I'm just here to help the both of you, and yet you can't even be bothered to properly read a book!"
"Will you take this bloody curse off!?"
"No."
"Bloody right you will and... what do you mean 'No'?!
"I'm not taking it off until you promise to actually study like the rest of us!"
"C'mon Hermione! This isn't funny and... Harry, stop laughing!"
"I'm sorry Ron, but she is right. We did promise."
"Harry," Ron turned his crusty-eyed face towards him. "Can you get rid of this?"
"Actually, no I can't. I don't know the counter curse. Sorry mate."
"Oh bugger all, neither do I. Okay, Hermione. Please, I'm sorry! This is disgusting, make it go away!"
"Not until you promise to finish reading that assignment!"
"Alright, alright, I promise! C'mon then!"
Hermione did a semi-circular swish of her wand and removed the curse. Ron continued to rub at his eyes for a full two minutes, even though all traces of goop had vanished. Hermione was nothing if not thorough.
"Ugh, that was absolutely revolting! Was that really necessary?"
"Honestly Ron, we did all agree to concentrate on our studies today. Just be glad that's all I did to get your attention." Ron cringed and Harry winced, recognizing the threat in her tone. "Besides, it's not as if you're the only one who'd rather be outside today, or in Hogsmeade for that matter. I'm desperate to visit Scrivenshaft's! I think this quill's about had it!"
Harry and Ron both noticed the parchment she had been writing on was rather blotchy in places.
"Hermione, I thought you had finished all your homework already?" Harry tried to get a better look at her parchment, but she suddenly pulled it closer to herself.
"I did," he noticed a blush creeping into her cheeks. "I'm just... I'm just catching up on some correspondence."
"Oh no! Not another letter to Vicky," Ron's voice went falsetto as he said this.
"Would you please stop calling him that! And no, it's not a letter to Vicky... urgh! I mean Viktor." She was becoming more and more flustered.
"Alright then, who's the new quill-pal?"
"None of your bloody business!"
Harry was taken aback - it was rare for Hermione to use such language. However, she did seem rather protective of her letter. Unusually so, he thought. Of course, it occurred to him, that she was just keeping it to herself because she was mad at Ron.
'It's probably a letter to her mum, or her dad, or maybe a cousin,' he thought. But he suddenly felt a twinge of unease. 'Or maybe she's found another Krum?' For some reason he couldn't bring himself to think of the phrase 'boyfriend'. He didn't know why, but the thought made him extremely uncomfortable.
"Ooooh, Hermione's got a boyfriend!"
Harry dropped his head into his hands, as his stomach did a nasty turn. He almost convinced himself it was because of the row about to unfold in full force.
"I HAVE NOT!"
"C'mon then, let's see it!"
"NO!"
"Ron, honestly, that's enough. Let her alone already. I don't think I have it in me to hear you two break into another full blown barking match!" Harry knew he was playing the sympathy card on them. They were always so concerned about his well being these days. As desperately curious as he was about Hermione's correspondent, he didn't know if he really wanted to find out after all - especially if it turned out to be another Krum.
Ron and Hermione both looked at him with a mixture of embarrassment for their behavior, and just a bit of guilt.
"I was only having her on...," Ron muttered.
"Hmmmph!" Hermione gave Ron a withering look, then muttered a charm to unseal the carved wooden box on the table that held her writing instruments and rolls of parchment. She sealed up the bottle of ink she was using and placed it in the box, then moved to put the letter and quill in as well.
SMACK!
Something large had hit against the tower window.
"What in bloody hell was that?!" Ron rushed to look out the window as Harry and Hermione looked at each other questioningly, then immediately jumped up and ran to join Ron. The rest of the younger Gryffindor's rushed to the windows as well, curious to see what the commotion was.
SPPAAASH!
"Agh! What was that?" A first year was startled as something large and wet smacked into the window directly in front of her.
The portrait door to the common room opened and Professor McGonagall came rushing in. "Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, I need you immediately."
"Professor, what's going on," Hermione asked, as she rushed back to the table to retrieve her wand.
THUD!
"Someone got the brilliant idea to use water balloons as bludgers to attack the first years on broomsticks. Madame Hooch is all the way out on the pitch with the Hufflepuffs, so I need some help in sorting this out. Come along quickly then!"
Ron and Hermione followed her out the portrait hole, followed closely by the rest of the students in the common room, desperate to see something exciting they could relay to their friends and upper classmates. Harry alone remained, taking a brief moment to ponder whether this stunt was 'Weasley twins fun and playful', or 'Slytherin mean and nasty.'
He turned to go back to the window, when he noticed that Hermione's parchment was still lying on the table, her quill now glopping liberal amounts of ink onto the page. Without thinking, he rushed over to it, removed the quill and dabbed it with a spare bit of cloth to remove the excess ink. He didn't mean to, but his eye managed to catch a few spare phrases.
'...no one else seems to know what it's like...'
'...only person I could ever talk to...'
'...never told anyone before...'
'No, no, no... look away now!' Harry thought to himself. It wasn't any of his business, really. If Hermione was sharing something personal with... with someone, then he needed to respect her privacy. 'Besides,' he consoled himself, 'it's definitely her mum. Who else would she write like that to?' It had to be her mum, right?
One more peek couldn't possibly hurt. It wasn't like he was reading the entire letter...
'...always felt that there was something more between us...'
'Okay, definitely not her mum,' he thought.
THWACK!
Another water balloon hit the window. Harry ran to to look, his heart hammering in his chest. The scene outside was chaotic, to say the least. Fat water balloons of many shapes and colors where whizzing through the air. The few students who were still on broomsticks were trying to find a way to land and yet avoid getting hit. The students who had left their common rooms to observe the action where screaming and pointing every time a balloon neared a victim. McGonagall had tried 'Finite Incantatum', which only seemed to increase the number of balloons. At one point it looked like Ron had tried to freeze a balloon midflight, but had only managed to freeze the water within, now turning it into a lethal object. Luckily, Hermione noticed immediately, and happened to save a grateful looking first year.
He glanced again at the parchment. 'They could be out there for a good long while,' he reasoned. 'It's not as if she'd ever be the wiser... I mean, what if it's some new... some new person (he still couldn't use that word) who was manipulating her to get to me? What if it were someone evil and nasty who was attempting to bewitch her mind and ensnare her senses and... when did I start sounding like Snape?' He shrugged off the annoying thought, took one more quick look around the room, and picked up the letter. He didn't notice how his thumb smeared the ink at the end of the last sentence as he unrolled the parchment.
23 March 1997
My dearest Harry,
"Me," he whispered into the empty common room. He read it again, just to make certain.
23 March 1997
My dearest Harry,
You know, I believe I've lost count how many times I've brought this up before, and I'm certain by now you've grown tired of me writing about it, but, seeing how this is the purpose of these numerous letters I've written over the years...
'"Numerous?!" He looked into the carved wooden box that she always managed to keep sealed and noticed that there were, indeed, numerous scrolls tucked in there. Tempting fate, he pulled some out and began unfurling their tops, looking at the dates of each one. From what he could gather, there were scrolls in here dating back to their first year. Glancing one more time around the room, he unrolled the earliest dated scroll he could find and began reading, his curiosity completely overriding any sense of propriety he had felt earlier.