AN…Sorry for the delay in getting this out but I'm having to write between 2 hour studying sessions every night. Just for the delay though, I'm posting three chapters.
Enjoy and please R&R.
Chapter 4: The Arrangement
"Harry!" Sirius called from the living room. "Harry! Come here!"
Harry walked from the kitchen to the living room, drinking from his mug of coffee.
"Yeah?" He asked brightly.
Sirius waved his hand at Harry. "I've got something for you."
He opened the huge cabinet near the window and pulled out a small box. He smiled wide as he handed it to Harry.
Harry looked at it questioningly. "If you're asking me to marry you…"
Sirius laughed. "Open it, fool."
Harry grinned as he opened the small box.
Inside, surrounded by cushions of silk was a golden lion's face, it's mane encrusted with diamonds. Harry tugged at the lion's face until it came free from the box. It was a golden ring with a gold chain attached to it.
Harry looked up at Sirius. "Was this…"
"Look at the inscription," Sirius suggested.
Harry looked inside the ring band. A small sentence was inscribed.
'A True Gryffindor.'
Harry smiled widely. "Was this dad's?"
Sirius nodded. "That was our James's. He told me to keep it safe if anything happened to him, so I could give it to his son one day."
Harry lifted the chain over his head, letting the ring bounce against his chest.
"It did have a sister," Sirius continued. "But it disappeared the night…well…you know."
Harry unconsciously raised his hand up to his scar. "Yeah, I know."
It had only been a week at the Marauder Manor. Everything was going great. Harry and Draco had decked out their new dorm room in Merlin's with furniture.
Harry tried to keep himself busy. He tried painting his new room or trying to fit the carpet by hand in the living room. He even resorted to re-furnish the bathroom himself but to no avail, resulting in a phone call to the plumber.
He thought about her constantly. He'd lost count of the times he'd ran to the phone when it rang, only to fin it was Ron or one of Sirius's girlfriends. There had been a few times when it had just rang once and hung up.
Then he'd wait patiently by the phone for it to ring again.
Everything he tried and everything he thought about always ended up with him thinking about Hermione.
The paint in his room for instance.
Draco and Harry had caught the Floo network down to their dorm, bought the paint from a nearby hardware store and had brought it back to their dorm to paint Harry's bedroom.
When Harry had finally got round to opening the can, it was a deep blue colour almost night blue.
His first thought just happened to be, 'Would Hermione like this?'
He'd screamed.
A manly scream obviously.
It had made Draco pop his head around the door anyway and ask what the hell Harry was doing.
"Sounds like bloody medieval torture in here," Draco shook his head.
~)*(~
The new term rolled around too quickly. Hermione had red through all her new textbooks, and planned her first class, the topic and how much she'd teach them on the first day. She was simply sitting at her desk, watching the dark clouds roll by leaving a trail of stars behind.
She was wishing for someone like her in her Charms class, a little bushy haired girl with her hand always raised to answer her question.
It gave Hermione a smile to think about it.
She'd thought a lot about everything over the summer. Hardly seeing Ron and Harry, she had nothing to do. Her muggle friends couldn't compensate for the two lads.
She'd mostly been thinking about Harry, wishing she wouldn't be thinking about him, which in turn caused her to think about him; a never-ending cycle.
She'd lost count of the times she'd sat by the phone and willed it to ring; picked it up to dial only to find herself hanging up before she heard the ring.
She quietly closed the book that lay open on the desktop. A flash of purple caught her attention and she opened the book again. All over this inside cover was various ink scribbles.
Hermione Ann Potter,
Hermione Ann Granger-Potter,
Professor H.A. Potter,
Mrs Hermione Potter
Mrs H.A. Potter
She grinned a little as she placed her quill back into her inkwell realising that several ink blotches were present on the inside cover as well.
Harry was peacefully cooking dinner in the kitchen of the Marauder Manor when the familiar ringing of the Muggle phone sounded.
He carefully put his sauce spoon down in the pan and walked to the wall phone, taking it off the hook.
"Hello?" He asked, placing it between his shoulder and cheek as he wiped his hands clean on the tea towel slung over his shoulder.
"Harry?" An all too familiar voice questioned. Instantly, a smile formed on his face.
"Hermione! How are you?"
"I'm fine thanks. And you?"
"Never better."
She coughed a little. "Ron and I were hoping you'd like to come over…to the Burrow this weekend. Ron's
come home for the week and wants to play you at football."
Harry chuckled. "He really thinks he'll win?"
"He says he's been getting tips from Oliver Wood," there was a smile in Hermione's voice.
Harry grinned. "Yeah, course I'll come. When?"
"This Saturday," Hermione replied. "Mrs Weasley's cooking us a big picnic dinner as well to eat
out on the lawn. She says you can bring Padfoot as well."
"On a leash?" Harry laughed, walking back to his cooking with the portable phone.
Hermione laughed with him. "I think human form might be best. Pig would have a heart attack seeing him again."
"Are we staying the night or something?" Harry slung the kitchen towel back over his shoulder.
"Yes. I'm staying with Ginny and you're in with Ron."
There was a short silence.
"What have you been up to then, Herm?" He asked, picking up the sauce spoon and stirring the bubbling liquid a bit more.
She breathed out. "Nothing much. I got a new schedule from Dumbledore for my Charms class. I've got to teach the seventh years some warding charms this year."
"You'll be teaching Colin Creevey," Harry chuckled. "Two guesses at what he wants his career to
be."
"Hmm, let me think," She chuckled back. "Would it be a photographer for the Daily Prophet?"
Harry laughed again, stirring his bubbling concoction. "You'll be teaching Ginny as well."
"I know," Hermione replied down the receiver. "I've already promised her that I'll give no special treatment to anyone."
"Sure you aren't turning into a Snape?" Harry asked.
He heard a small muffle down the phone then a cookbook flew at the back of his head, smacking him lightly.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, rubbing his head. "That was unfair!"
Hermione laughed almost hysterically down the phone. "Your own fault."
"I guess it's a lesson," He shrugged chuckling. "Never mess with your best friend when she's
a Charms professor."
"A good lesson learned," She replied.
Another silence that lasted mere seconds.
"I've got be going," She broke the silence. "Give my love to Sirius."
"Will do," Harry smiled. "I'll be at the Weasley's by floo on Saturday."
"Good!" She replied with the smile. "See you soon, Harry."
"See you soon," He grinned.
The phone went dead with a click.
Harry replaced the phone back on its stand and returned to his cooking.