Just in case you're confused, let me clear up the matter. I am not J.K. Rowling, and I do not own Harry Potter, and am certainly not making any money off of this. I'm writing this purely because I enjoy it, and I hope you do too.
A Sirius Matter
Chapter 8 - Finishing the House
Because of the time spent with the mirror (not to mention the fact that Ginny had been painting the dueling room at the time), Harry and Hermione didn't get to duel until after their karate class. When they portkeyed back to the house, Ginny was still working on a few rooms, so they didn't bother her. They walked into the dueling room and could barely recognize it. It looked like a gymnasium. The walls were painted white. Instead of carpeted, the burgundy floor was shiny and smooth. There were six folding chairs along the wall on each end of the room. The floor had silver lines on it that made it look like a basketball court, but instead of basketball hoops, at each end were golden quidditch hoops hanging down from the ceiling. The highest hoops themselves were just over five feet in the air. "Wow," said Harry smiling.
"I hope you like it," came Ginny's voice from the doorway. I know you can't have a quidditch pitch here, so I came up with a way to play quidditch without broomsticks. I know you want exercise. As much fun as quidditch is, you're sitting down for the whole game, so you hardly get any exercise." Ginny smirked. "Plus I know how much Hermione hates flying. I figured that when we're not dueling, we could play," she said nervously. "I got you a Quaffle. It's in that corner," she said, pointing at a brand new Quaffle.
Harry beamed at Ginny, "I think that's brilliant! Does Ron know about…Oh yeah." He then looked at Ginny. "Do you think Ron is ready to at least take a look at the place? If only to check this room out?"
"Maybe," said Ginny seriously.
"Then maybe you can go get him after Harry and I are finished dueling. Maybe in an hour?" said Hermione.
"Ok," said Ginny. "I'll try. In the meantime, I've got a few more rooms to finish up before I rob Harry."
Harry chuckled. "Did you manage to find the door knocker that I wanted?
"No," said Ginny, "so I bought a cheap one and transfigured it to a gold phoenix like you asked. "It was harder to attach it to the door without magic than to redecorate the entire house with magic."
"Thanks," said Harry.
"That's what I'm here for," Ginny said as she turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
"Harry," shouted Hermione, pulling out her wand, "Defend yourself!" She shouted, "Stupefy," sending a stunner at Harry, who dived out of the way, while pulling his wand out of his back pocket. This was almost always the way their duels began, with one of them taking the other by surprise.
He yelled, "Protego," shielding himself, and then, "expelliarmus," as he pointed his wand at his opponent/girlfriend.
She managed to shout, "Protego," shielding herself from the blast. She then ran in his direction, shouting, "expelliarmus," sending more blasts his way. Harry noticed a folding chair behind Hermione, and got an idea. He pointed his wand and quietly muttered, "accio chair."
Hermione aimed her wand at him and shouted, "Stupe…what," as the chair hit her from behind, knocking her backwards onto the chair."
"Petrificus Totalus," shouted Harry, putting his startled opponent into the full body-bind.
He walked up to her stiff but alert body and said, "You look really beautiful," before pointing his wand at her and saying, "Finite incantatum." He held out his hand to help her up. She took it without looking him in the eye.
"That's why I got second place in our defense exams," she muttered. "I thought I'd finally beat you this match. You manage to surprise me. All the spells I know won't help if I'm too shocked to use them." She hung her head down.
"That's why we're practicing, so that by the time we end up in real duels, we'll be ready. I know you don't want me to go easy on you."
"At least you only petrified me," said Hermione. "I'll have to watch out for Ginny once she joins us, probably tomorrow. Ron told me about her favorite hex, and it sounds awful."
"What is it?" asked Harry, curious.
Hermione smiled, "That's for me to know and you to find out. Defend yourself!"
-
After five ten-minute duels wherein Harry won all but the fourth one, they had Ginny portkey to the Burrow to ask Ron to join them. Five minutes later, Harry and Hermione heard a crash in the living room, along with Ron's voice saying, "Ouch. Well, Gin, you brought me here. Where's your unusual quidditch pitch?"
"Come and see, Ronald."
Ron tensed up when he saw Harry and Hermione. "Er, hi."
"Hi Ron," said Harry, "What do you think about the indoor quidditch pitch your sister designed?"
"It looks good," said Ron, "but the ceiling's too low to ride a broom in here."
"That's why you don't ride the brooms in here," said Ginny. "That's why I called it, `broomless quidditch.' Obviously it's better if you have a full quidditch pitch, but you have to make due with what you have."
"Er, I guess so," said Ron.
"Do you want to play a game, Ron?" asked Hermione.
"I, er, I suppose," said Ron.
Harry pointed his wand to a corner and said, "Accio Quaffle," causing it to come.
"Wow," said Ron, "I didn't know you could summon things, Harry. I thought we weren't learning that spell until next term."
"He learned that spell here, Ronald," said Hermione, "because believe it or not we actually have been practicing magic here."
"Ok," said Ron, "Fine. You've been learning new spells here."
"Let's start the game," shouted Harry, stopping an argument from starting.
They played the game for about an hour. The teams were Harry and Hermione against Ron and Ginny. Harry and Ginny played chasers while Ron and Hermione were keepers. Harry would steal the Quaffle from Ginny, who would steal it from Harry, who would steal it from Ginny. Finally Harry threw the ball at the right hoop. Ron caught it and tossed it to Ginny, who immediately got it through the hoops Hermione was unsuccessfully trying to guard. The game went on for about an hour, after which both Harry and Ginny were exhausted from having been running almost the whole time. The score was one-hundred to eighty. Harry's team lost, mainly because Hermione wasn't a very good keeper.
Ginny announced, "I've got one more room I have to finish before getting paid," and walked off, saying, "Maybe you two can give Ron a tour."
Reluctantly, Ron went around the house looking at what his sister had done. He said, "It does look nice, even if it is Slytherin colors." Ron especially liked to picture of a Hungarian Horntail dragon that Ginny had replaced the portrait of Mrs. Black with (she'd put the canvas with the dragon over the cut canvas and `repaired' it). While the dragon was moving, it was blessedly silent. Ron said, "I wonder why Ginny picked a horntail."
"She said it was about the most dangerous breed out there," said Harry.
"Sounds like a reason she'd pick it," said Ron
"She also liked the color," said Hermione.
"But she knew she was replacing the portrait of a dragon-lady," said Harry.
Before anyone could respond, they heard Ginny scream from inside a nearby room. Ron was closest, and ran into the room, followed quickly by Harry and Hermione.
Harry first noticed that a painting of what appeared to be cupid was lying on the floor. He looked at Ginny's eyes, which seemed in a daze, as she stared at Ron. Harry wasn't positive, but it appeared to Harry that Ginny was looking at her brother in a way that sisters shouldn't.
"Hello, Ron," Ginny said, batting her eyelashes at her brother, "did I mention how nice you look today?"
Harry looked at Ron, who appeared very scared as Ginny sexily walked up to her brother. She put her hand on his face and he bolted out of the room, appearing to Harry like he was about to either throw up or have a heart attack. Harry started laughing loudly.
"This isn't a laughing matter, Harry," hissed Hermione. "Ginny has obviously been bewitched with something similar to a love potion, probably from touching that portrait of cupid!"
"Then why didn't we detect it when we scanned to place?" said Harry.
"We were scanning for dark magic, not love spells," said Hermione.
At that moment, they heard Ron yelling for help. Harry started chuckling, "Ha-how do we help? Ha ha…"
Hermione took a deep breath. "I can try finite incantatum," she said, marching down the stairs as fast as she could go.
Harry slowly followed her down the stairs, doing his best not to laugh. When he got to the dining room, he saw Ron standing on top of the table doing his best to stop Ginny from joining him. He looked like he was ready to cry.
Hermione said, "It didn't work."
"Can't you just stupefy her?" Harry asked.
"We don't know exactly what's gotten her," said Hermione, "Mixing certain spells together can be disastrous."
"So what are we gonna do?" asked Harry, biting his lip to avoid laughing at the way Ginny kept lunging at her brother and he'd keep pushing her away.
"I don't know; this is Sirius'…that's it! I'll call Sirius!" she said excitedly. She quickly pulled a compact out of her pocket, opened it and said, "Snuffles," to the mirror.
"Yes, Hermione," Harry heard Sirius' voice a few seconds later.
"Well, er, Ginny was in a room and we think she touched a painting of cupid and…"
Sirius chuckled, "She's acting like she's just taken a love potion?"
Hermione said, "Yes."
"Who's she after? Harry?" Sirius asked with mirth in his voice.
"Er no. Actually, she's after her brother, Ron."
Sirius actually started laughing out loud at this information.
"Sirius! This is a serious matter, seriously," said Hermione, "It's not funny!"
"You're right, it's not funny," Sirius said, "It's bloody hilarious!" Harry started laughing with his godfather at that.
"Maybe one of us was adopted," shouted Ginny over the conversation, "Maybe we're not really related after all! I know you think I'm pretty!"
"Help!" squeaked Ron as he continued to fight off his sister's advances.
Sirius chuckled, "That was funny! You'll have to show me that memory in a pensieve!"
"Sirius," shouted Hermione, "How do we cure her?"
Sirius was still chuckling, "If you insist on stopping it, there's a potion in the loo cabinet that says, `Anti-Cupid.' You'll have to get her to swallow it. Otherwise she'll be in love with her brother for twenty-four hours."
Hermione ran to the loo and pulled open the cabinet. She had no problem finding the potion. She went back downstairs and found that Ginny had finally managed to get on the table. Ron jumped off of it and ran away. Ginny jumped down and was running after him until Hermione shouted, "Ginny! I know why Ron is avoiding you!"
Ginny stopped in her tracks. Timidly she said, "Y-You do? Aren't I pretty enough? Is it my freckles?"
"Oh no," said Hermione, "He loves your freckles. It's your breath."
"What?" said Ginny, horrified.
"Yes," said Hermione grimly, "I'm afraid you've got really bad breath, what muggles call, `halitosis.' The good news is that if you drink this potion, you'll have good breath."
"And Ron will love me?" said Ginny, with a wide smile on her face.
"Definitely. The potion will taste bad, but once you've swallowed it all, everything will be fine." Hermione handed Ginny the potion, which she drank greedily.
"Ok, I've drunk it! Ron, here I….What!!! Oh my God!!!" Her face turned completely pale and she ran into the nearest unoccupied room and slammed the door behind her.
Hermione shouted, "Ron, it's safe! You can come out now!" She then said, "Harry, why don't you levitate that picture to the attic while I try talking to Ginny?"
"Alright, love."
Harry went back to that room and pointed his wand at the infamous painting. He levitated it up another set up stairs, and finally into the attic with the cursed objects. Before opening the attic door, he had to state the password Hermione had set to unlock it. When he came back downstairs, he saw Ginny was no longer hiding in a room, but her head was down.
"How are you feeling, Ginny?" he asked.
"Humiliated," she said without looking up. "I know you had a good laugh over it."
"Ginny, I didn't mean any harm by laughing. The situation did look funny, that's all. Picture if I'd touched the portrait, and was chasing Ron all over the house."
She started chuckling, "I, I guess I must have looked funny, chasing after my brother."
Harry chuckled too, "Actually, Ron looked even funnier. I thought he was gonna have a nervous breakdown."
She looked up at Harry and laughed. At that moment, Hermione called, "Harry, we've got to get back home."
"I'll be right down," Harry called back. He then turned back to Ginny. "I've taken the portrait away so you can finish the room. You've been doing a wonderful job here. Here's the forty Galleons I owe you, and an extra five as a tip. Don't tell Hermione about the five." He pulled a change pouch out of his pocket and gave it to her. "It's all there, you can count it."
-
That evening at supper Marissa Granger said, "When will that house be ready so we can watch your magic show?"
"It's probably ready right now," said Harry, "When we left, Ginny had only one more room to take care of."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Granger's faces lit up. "Then could we go there tomorrow after your karate class?" asked Adam. "We have a free afternoon tomorrow and Friday."
"Sure," said Hermione, "We'll try to show you some interesting magic, and if there's anything I've told you about that we don't demonstrate, be sure to ask us while we're there."
"We will," said Marissa.
"When are you going to invite that friend of yours, Neville here?" asked Adam.
Hermione said, "Er, I don't know…"
"Why not invite other people, like the Weasleys, here, too. Have a party of sorts. This Friday afternoon. We can pick you and Neville up at the karate school. We'll order pizza for everyone."
"Ok," said Hermione, "sounds like fun!"
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