Chapter Six: Hermione Comes to Stay
The days following Harry's birthday flew past thick and fast, he went from day to day spending time with Ron playing Wizard's Chess and doing as all Teenager's do; not a lot. Both Harry and Ron had got into a routine of sorts, they'd spend their days laughing and joking around, enjoying the Wizard's Chess and Ron's fathers wants to try out all these new fangled Muggle inventions he'd unearthed.
Occasionally Ron would break the self-imposed routine to lock himself up in the cluttered attic and seemingly do nothing more than write letters to what Harry could only ascertain to be some secret girlfriend that Ron had. It was in actual fact Hermione, though Ron's want for secrecy was rather confusing as Harry too was writing to Hermione as often as Ron was except he did it in full view of Mr and Mrs Weasley who were absolutely thrilled to have Harry doing something other than trying to get Ron with poorly thought out practical jokes.
Of course Ron had initiated the practical jokes, his attempt to turn Harry into a human Chicken by means of some charmed Muggle glue and pillow feathers had backfired with disastrous consequences. Instead of turning Harry into a human Chicken he'd turned the kitchen into some strange themed animal room. Mr Weasley had failed to hold back the laughter after it'd happened but Mrs Weasley was a whole different matter altogether. Her yelling seemed to last for hours, both Ron and Harry ear's had become dulled by the whole incident, though of course it didn't stop either of them. Harry had tried to get his own back by strategically placing a dung-bomb or a dozen in Ron's Bed, only for Ron to sneakily get Ginny to feel his wrath by swapping over his bed linen with hers. Needless to say the tongue lashing from Ginny was something quite extraordinary, though of course Harry turned a deep red and Ron was laughing for days.
It was a cloudy Mid-August morning when Ron thundered down the rickety stairs, his red hair flowing behind him as he lumbered into the kitchen in a pair of hand-me-down black pyjamas. They were his favourite pair, as they seemed to fit him adequately and they weren't electric Orange either. Harry followed closely by, his pyjamas weren't exposed, he had a orange and red Gryffindor themed dressing gown on and was wearing a pair of navy blue slippers which had been bought for him on his birthday by Mrs Weasley.
"I told you I'd win, I'm unbeatable," shouted Ron as he held his arms up in a mock marathon winning pose. Harry shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the kitchen sink.
"That's not fair, I was still in bed when you said go, I should win by default," said Harry as he pulled a glass from a cupboard by his head and quickly filled it with ice cold tap water.
"Sore Loser!" exclaimed Ron jokingly as he jumped about on the balls of his feet and enjoyed the spoils of his success, well whatever that could be.
"Right, next time, I'm going to win by a mile," said Harry as he took a large gulp from his glass of water, "you watch."
Ron just stared at him for a moment and turned to the door to the hallway and began walking towards the lounge confidently. As Ron turned into the hallway he froze in his steps as if he'd seen or a ghost. Stood in front of him was Mrs Weasley and Hermione, Ron stood his jaw dropped as far as it could go and his eyes wide open in sheer shock.
"B-b-but… you said n-n-next week," stammered Ron as he continued to gaze at Hermione.
"It is next week," said Hermione without the slightest hint of emotion.
"Hi Hermione," said Harry as he walked out from behind the gob smacked Ron holding his glass of water.
"Hello Harry," said Hermione with a smile as she momentarily turned to Harry and then back to Ron, "So, is where's your Dressing gown Ron? Harry's wearing one."
Ron looked down and then suddenly as if being controlled by a puppeteer he tried to cover himself up. Hermione chuckled, "Oh Ron, don't be silly, I've seen you and Harry in your pyjamas loads of times."
Ron removed his hands and sorted himself out, "Oh, well I knew that, I was ummm, playing a joke… yeah, that's it."
Mrs Weasley shook her head and turned to Hermione whose wild, frizzy hair hadn't tamed at all during the previous few months, "You'll be sleeping with Ginny dear, the two boys can help you with your things."
"No, Mum," said Ron desperately, "Ginny would rip our heads off we went near her room, not after the dung-bombs."
"Well, that's tough then," said Mrs Weasley without mercy, "That'll serve you two right for using Ginny in a Practical Joke."
Both Harry and Ron shrugged with a childish malevolence as footsteps could be heard from above them.
"That'll be Ginny," muttered Ron.
It was indeed Ginny, she was wearing a casual pair of blue jeans, a light yellow t-shirt and had a sweater tied around her waist. "Hello Hermione," she said as she came into full view, "I'll help you with your things; those two are being right pains, acting like a pair of two year olds."
Ron snorted at Ginny and turned his back on her as she came into the small group and smiled at Hermione. "Hi Ginny, it's nice to see you again," said Hermione with a pleasant sound to her voice.
Both Hermione and Ginny exchanged pleasantries as Mrs Weasley walked to the door and looked down at Hermione's things. Crookshanks was sat quietly next to Hermione's large trunk as Mrs Weasley kneeled down and ruffled the Crookshanks' coat and then dragged the trunk towards the foot of the stairs. "Right you two take this to Ginny's room and no monkey business," she said firmly.
Ron stood straight and moved his hand to his head as if he was a soldier obeying a command from his superior officer, "yes Sir." He shouted like a robot. Immediately Harry broke up into fits of laughter and tried to hold a straight face as Mrs Weasley scowled at both of the boys.
The morning passed swiftly as Hermione spent her time in Ginny's room unpacking her things and the two mischievous boys spent their time strolling around the house and laughing at everything from a poor knock, knock joke to Harry slipping and falling through the backdoor to the garden. It was a normal day for these two and they loved it.
As the sun rose to its full height, Harry and Ron sat in the garden staring up at the sparse arrangement of clouds. The clouds of the morning had quickly left, leaving a tiny amount of them leftover which allowed Harry and Ron to tell each other what images they saw in the clouds.
"That one's Victor Krum falling from his broomstick," said Ron with a malevolent smile.
"No chance, its Snape exploding after drinking his own potion," said Harry with a chortle.
"Harry, look over there," said Ron as he pointed across at a cloud just emerging from behind a large Oak Tree, "that looks like Draco being eaten by a huge sheep."
Harry burst out in loud laughter as the cloud did indeed look like Draco being eaten by a huge sheep or at least to the two of them it did. From behind them they heard the sound of feet trampling through the lush grass. Harry looked over to see Hermione walking over, her frizzy hair swaying slightly in the breeze as she was positively beaming.
"Oh there you two are," she said exuberantly, "I've been wondering where you are."
"Come to tell her off for what happened to Ginny, have you?" proclaimed Ron with grin as she got nearer.
"No, but I should've that was really mean you two," she said without a single bit of sternness in her voice.
"Hey, what did I do? Ron put them in her bed, not me," said Harry as he sat up and looked over at Hermione as if he was about to face the Spanish Inquisition.
"Oh Harry, don't be silly, I'm not going to sentence you to death," she said reassuringly.
"No, it'll a lot worse than that, she'll coddle you to death," Ron whispered in Harry's ear. Harry held back the laughs but tears began to stream down his face as he struggled to try and keep a straight face.
"Anyway," said Hermione, "I only came out to talk to you two about what's been happening recently."
"OH," said Harry solemnly, knowing full well that Hermione was aware of Moody's kidnapping and that maybe she was also going to want to know how he was feeling. Which of course would garner the usual 'I'm fine' but Hermione was far too persistent to be stopped by anything other than Harry pouring out every feeling he has, which was definitely never going to happen.
"Well Harry, it's important we know what's going on, so we can figure out why they kidnapped Poor Mad-Eye, and what they might do next," said Hermione as if she was talking about studying for the OWLs.
"Oh Hermione, what's there to know, they're trying to pick off the Order so they can get to Harry," said Ron coldly, his words scaring Hermione slightly.
"But we don't know that, I heard what Remus had said and it looks like they could've taken anyone that day," said Hermione.
"Except Harry, he was gone before they knew anything, isn't that right Harry," stated Ron his voice resembling that of an Army Captain more than the naïve and jovial voice of normal.
"Yeah," said Harry lost within his own thoughts of what had happened that day. As much as he'd tried to put everything in the back of his mind and that he also had the memory of Sirius haunting himself, he knew there was something not at all right about it all. Well of course nothing was right, they had attacked Harry first and then kidnapped Moody, and somehow Harry knew it was a diversionary tactic in going for him, but why? What did they want with Moody?
"But I just don't understand why they would take Moody?" asked Hermione rhetorically, "He's not even the biggest threat."
"You don't think that they are going to interrogate Moody," said Ron coldly, "Do you?"
"You don't think," she said slowly as her hands covered her mouth as the realisation of Ron's word began to sink in.
"Don't think what?" said Harry his mind lost elsewhere.
"That they'll find out how t-to get to y-y-you through Moody," stammered Hermione, her voice straining slightly as the words seemed to stay in the air for an eternity until both Harry and Ron realised what she'd said.
"But… they can't… Moody wouldn't let them," said Ron dismissively his mind having not yet fully considered Hermione's theory yet.
"Ron, there are ways to make people talk, like Veritaserum," said Hermione very matter of factly.
"Oh," said Ron.
Harry bowed his head and stared at the grass swaying in the wind. They'd already found 12 Grimmauld Place, attacked him in Diagon Alley and now had Moody, what else could be next? Where would he be safe? Was Hogwarts his only place of haven? All these questions weighed on Harry's mind heavily. Sirius had died at the end of the last school year and that was hard enough as it is but with the Prophecy and everything else that had happened, Harry was questioning whether he would even survive the torment, and anguish.
"Oh Harry," said Hermione as she looked at Harry's sheepish expression, "I'm sorry, I forgot how hard it must be for you right now, what with Sirius going and the attacks."
Harry shrugged his shoulders as if to imply that he was fine and that he would be alright. Though Hermione knew him too well to know that whilst he was brave and courageous he was also stubborn and would rarely if ever open up and speak to someone.
"Don't worry about it Harry, we'll be here with you if anything happens," said Ron assuredly, his polite smile morphing into a nice big grin, which was directed right at Harry.
"I'm not worried," said Harry with a false smile. He was struggling with the notion to tell both of them about the Prophesy, but it didn't feel right, whilst both of them looked alarmed at what'd happened, they weren't necessarily troubled by it all. It was too early and Harry didn't like to ruin his friend's nice summers with unwarranted worry about a Prophesy.
"Hey look, it's Draco and his two Gorilla's being mauled by a pack of stampeding Blast-Ended Skrewts," exclaimed Ron trying to change the subject as he pointed up at a huge cloud gliding through the sky. Harry immediately cracked up with laughter as Hermione stared at Ron with a scolding look.
"What!?" said Ron defensively, his hands held up at the side of him.
"Ron's in trouble," said Harry with a huge grin.
"Harry," said Hermione sharply, "You can stop that too, you're both as bad as each other."
Both boys looked at Hermione and then turned to each other. "Oh lighten up Hermione," said Ron.
Hermione just shook her head in disgust and crossed her arms and looked away from both Harry and Ron who were now laughing uncontrollably. "I can't believe you two are acting like everything's fine," uttered Hermione.
"Look Hermione, we're just as worried as you are but we like to have a good laugh, it helps," said Harry as he immediately stopped laughing and turned serious yet again, though not without a little smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Oh I guess you're right," said Hermione, "But I still can't see how you two can dismiss it all so quickly."
Ron suddenly dropped his grin and turned to Hermione and gazed for a moment, "Dismiss it all!?" he said puzzled, "We're not dismissing anything, we're just trying to have a laugh every once in a while, so that we don't explode from being all serious all the time."
"You don't see me exploding," replied Hermione.
"Hermione, you'd explode if someone told you the Library was shut for ten minutes," said Ron devilishly.
Hermione blushed for a moment before hitting Ron on the arm, "Ouch! What was that for?" asked Ron loudly.
"Nothing," said Hermione with a wry grin.
All three of them sat laughing for a short while, before Harry got up and signalled to go. Hermione quickly followed and Ron stayed down for a few moments more before getting to his feet and joining the other two. The three of them walked through the swaying grass in the garden and entered the Burrow through the backdoor. Ron was the last to enter the house as he stood by the door for the moment looking at the sky; obviously he'd seen another comedy cloud.
----
This chapter will likely be the shortest of the story, i really wrote it to introduce Hermione back into the book and keep a nice mixture between action, humour and dialogue that may be important come later on. Also, whilst it is short, i do like the chemistry in there, it certainly makes for a nice funny chapter i think. Anyway Chapter 7 will be up in a few days, I've yet to really figure out what i want in it yet.