CHAPTER 2
Neville grew tired of staring at Ron and Hermione after a while, though, and stopped staring in favour of loading his plate with an ungodly amount of food, and proceeding to devour it at a tremendous rate.
The only person who seemed unfazed by the fact that Ron and Hermione were now an item was Ginny. She had her elbows on the table and her chin on her hands, staring off in the direction of the Slytherin table.
After they had all eaten (this taking notoriously long, as both Harry and Ron had second helpings of everything) they went off to class. They had the first period together, since all three of them had transfiguration as a N.E.W.T. subject, along with Lavender, Dean, Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley and three other Ravenclaw's. There were no Slytherins in their Transfiguration class, which suited Harry, Ron and Hermione fine. Even diplomatic Hermione had trouble with the more difficult Slytherins; some of them just weren't compatible with the rest of the Hogwarts students.
Transfiguration was one of Hermione's favourite subjects, and she knew that this was true for Ron and Harry as well. Professor McGonagall was strict, but a good and fair teacher, and her lessons were interesting. Hermione had far more subjects than Ron and Harry though, since she had started so many in third year and had dropped just enough subjects to not have to be forced to use a time-turner to be able to attend all her classes. Although all three of them were attending N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration, Potions, Defense against the Dark Arts and Charms, and Hermione took Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes, as well as a few other subjects, while Ron and Harry only had Care of Magical Creatures.
"Good morning, class. Today we will be continuing from last lesson. Would anyone like to revise what we did last time? Yes, Mister Longbottom?"
Neville had taken Transfiguration for lack of other subjects he was able to take; Snape would never have accepted him into N.E.W.T. level Potions, it was something of a miracle that both Harry and Ron had managed to qualify. The only thing Neville was really good at was Herbology, but of course, he wasn't allowed to restrict his selection to only one subject.
"We were talking about Transfiguration of objects made of silver."
"Quite right. Who can tell me why this is something special? Miss Granger?"
"The Transfiguration of objects made of silver is difficult because silver is a magical substance. It has magical properties that need to be taken into account before it can be Transfigured."
"Very good. When Transfiguring objects made of silver, you need to be extremely careful or there will be repercussions. If your concentration lapses, the power of your spell might rebound, and that could be very nasty indeed. I hope you have all read the pages I assigned. We will start with some smaller, not very powerful objects. Can someone tell me some shapes that give silver power? Yes, Miss Granger?"
"Circles and crosses."
"Very good, Miss Granger. Does anyone know why one would want to change the material that an object is made of?" She nodded at Lavender.
"To make them less dangerous, or effective. Something magical made of silver loses its magic its it's turned into copper for example."
"Very good. Five points for Gryffindor. This is only true for silver, and the spell is quite difficult. But seeing you all made it into my N.E.W.T. course, we will be doing very advanced magic this year, so please don't let your attention lapse at any time during this year ? you will need everything I have to teach you. Now, I will give you all some silver cutlery to Transfigure into copper. If you all manage that, we will move on to jewellery, bangles and such. This will be a lot harder, given the circular shape. Now, watch as I show you how to do it: one, two, three, aurorum ferrato!" The silver fork in front of her turned a metallic orange.
"To work, please."
She handed out some forks and spoons, and all around the room there were echoes of "Aurorum ferrato!" Hermione managed to turn her spoon into pure copper on the second try; Ron was having a bit more trouble.
"Mister Weasley, this is a silver-copper alloy. Concentrate!"
But at the end of the period he still had not been able to banish the last traces of silver from his fork.
He left the classroom muttering to himself. Hermione came up behind him and put her arms around him.
"Come on, you'll get the hang of it - we just started on it today." She removed her arms from around his waist and put her small hand in his larger one. Harry fell into step beside them as they walked along the corridors to Professor Flitwick's classroom together.
"I hope Flitwick's in a better mood today than he was last time," he said.
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "The homework he gave us was really foul - theory is necessary, I know. Constant vigilance!" he barked, imitating their former DADA teacher, Professor Moody. "But," he continued sarcastically, "I find five pieces of parchment about the properties of preservation charms and their use in Ancient Egypt a trifle superfluous. I had trouble staying awake reading the book - my eyes kept unfocusing. I have rarely been confronted with anything more boring..." He yawned demonstratively and Harry laughed.
"Please don't say that to his face - you're much too frank as it is, he can't deal with it. Poor Flitwick, his self-esteem is low enough without trampling around on it." He grinned at Ron, who pretended to be offended.
"Come on - I'm not that callous! You sound like you're talking about Malfoy! He's the one that tramples on people's self-esteem, not me!"
Harry let his jaw drop in alleged shock.
"Okay, I take it back... there's nothing more insulting than being compared to that slimy git!" he declared dramatically. Hermione sighed, and muttered something to herself that sounded suspiciously like "So immature sometimes..."
~*~
After lunch Hermione went off to Arithmancy, while Harry and Ron set out towards Hagrid's hut for a double period of CoMC.
Hagrid emerged from his cabin carrying a large box, and everyone craned their necks in an attempt to see what was inside, as to be able to scoot back towards the back of the group quickly if they found it necessary. But their fears were not justified, at least not today. Inside the box were about ten silvery-green lizards. Harry had thought they were small at first, but upon getting a better look at them, he saw they were actually much bigger, now that was strange...
"Now who've yeh can tell me what these nifty lil' creatures are?? Hagrid beamed around at all of them. Ron's hand went up, much to Harry's, and obviously Hagrid's, surprise.
"They're mokes. They can shrink at will - and if they're not shrunk, then they grow to about 10 inches. Their skin can shrink as well, even if they're not wearing it anymore, which makes things made of it hard to steal."
"Good on yeh, Ron. Five points for Gryffindor. O' course - yeh're right about the lizards and their skins - that's why purses an' pouches an' the like made of moke-skin are very prized. They're practically thief-proof. Now, I want y'all to come here quickly, to startle 'em, like, and watch how they shrink when they think they're in danger."
"I'm getting you a moke-skin purse for Christmas," Harry told Ron later.
"Yeah, I'll get you one, too!" Ron decided.
They spent the rest of the lesson watching the mokes shrinking and growing, feeding them, and drawing up diagrams, labeling them, making charts of what they ate. Mokes weren't terribly interesting, but Harry enjoyed the hands-on quality of the lesson. He always found that he remembered the things he worked out himself a lot better than notes he just copied down onto parchment. He had always wondered how Hermione had managed to stay awake throughout every single History of Magic lesson and take notes; he himself had always dozed off ten minutes into the lesson, rising from his stupor only when Professor Binns dismissed the class, and not remembering a single thing that had been said.
Ron savoured the fresh air, and he and Harry were reluctant to go back inside after CoMC. They were not looking forward to diminishing the pile of homework that awaited them, and, two hours later, they hadn't made much progress.
"I'm famished," Ron told Harry. "Let's go have dinner."
"You're always famished," Harry pointed out. "But since I'm hungry too, it's not a bad idea. I just finished my Charms essay, so I'm all-clear." Ron shot him a look; he hadn't finished writing down all the important points of the Protego Charm.
"I'll copy it from you later."
When they entered the Great Hall they saw Hermione already sitting at the Gryffindor table; they hadn't seen her all afternoon, Ron guessed she had been in the library. She was sitting next to Lavender, who was in her Study of Ancient Runes class. They were chatting animatedly about something Celtic - that was all Ron managed to decipher from the flow of words that made no real sense to him, since he didn't know the first thing about ancient runes. He sat down between her and Harry and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. She broke off in mid-sentence and turned to face him, a beautiful smile lighting up her features.
"Hey, you." She waved. "Haven't seen you around for a while - how was your afternoon?" She shot a glance at Lavender. "No, tell me later - I'm keeping someone waiting. Sorry!"
He raised one eyebrow at her; a gesture that she tried to mirror, but failed miserably.
"I'm going to have to ask you how you do that some other time - right now I'll be getting back to my absorbing discussion about hieroglyphic markings found on some old stones in Cornwall."
"Ah. I don't think I'll be joining that discussion. Much to your disappointment, I know. I'm afraid it has too much of a schoolwork air to it for me to be discussing it after hours," he teased her.
"Oh, Ron, don't be obnoxious," she told him, but gave him a kiss and turned back to Lavender again anyway. Ron grinned at Harry and reached for the soup-tureen and breadbasket. Something about Hogwarts Ron had always held in high regard was variety and diversity of the food; the school employed a large number of house-elves, and they outdid themselves at every meal. As much as Ron loved his mother's cooking, the food at school, well - there was just so much of it! The tables were jam-packed at every meal: porridge, eggs and bacon, toast, pastries, pancakes, sausages, hash-browns and a large selection of cereal just for breakfast.
He took full advantage of being surrounded by so much food; it was a miracle that he didn't weigh three tons; judging by the amount he ate, he should have been Dudley-sized.
"Stop gorging yourself like that - you're going to explode," Harry said severely. Harry wasn't picky himself, but even he didn't eat as much as Ron did, though you never would have guessed, and people not used to it were genuinely shocked when they saw what Ron could eat at any one time.
"No I'm not," Ron replied absently, and kept eating. When he was finished, Harry and Hermione exchanged mock-exasperated looks, and they all went up to the common room together.
"Antipodean Opaleye," Hermione said.
"Right you are," the Fat Lady told them, and swung aside to let them in. Hermione had already done all her homework, but stayed in the common room to help Ron and Harry. While they worked, she talked to Ginny, who had come up from dinner shortly after them.
Ginny was in her Fifth Year now - one year younger than Ron and the last of the Weasley children at Hogwarts. She was a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch-team, which was made up of her, Nathalie Thomas and Cassie Jordan as chasers, Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper as beaters, Harry as seeker and Ron as keeper. Harry had been seeker for the team since his first year at Hogwarts; most of the others had only joined the team the previous year. They were still pretty good though, and Harry hoped they would manage to win the cup again. He had been promoted to team-captain, and was busy working out game-strategies almost every spare minute he had.
He didn't want to be beaten by the Slytherins again; they were insufferable enough as it was. Harry had the feeling that the older they grew, the more abhorrent most of them became. There were, of course, exceptions, but the majority of the Slytherins were just... horrible. Their usual behavior made Harry want to land a punch right in the middle of that obnoxious smirk they all wore. It was another thing that was quintessentially Slytherin; he was sure no one else could smirk like that. Now there was something for him to ponder on a long, rainy evening...
~*~
The news that Hermione and Ron were now dating spread through the school like a wildfire; a lot of people who didn't know her personally thought she had been dating Harry, having seen her always hanging around him; they knew him of course.
She was famous at Hogwarts in her own right, being top of her year, and one of the smartest students in school. But for people who didn't know either of them it was easy to misinterpret their relationship.
Both Ron and Hermione received many claps on the back when the other wasn't around; Ron was one of the most coveted boys at school, and Hermione's name usually came up in the discussion of who the prettiest girls in school were; other names that fell were Ginny Weasley and Blaise Zabini, as well as Cho Chang and the Patil twins.
"Good on ya, Ron," Dean told him when he heard the news. He'd had a crush on Hermione himself in Fifth Year, but was over it now, and genuinely happy for Ron. Ron even got a letter from Fred and George:
Dearest Ron,
We wish to congratulate you on your newest achievement - it's good to see you carrying on the family tradition! We must also proclaim our approval of the chosen individual. It was inevitable that the two of you would eventually discover your true feelings for each other. That or the infamous Weasley-charm is finally working on her. We hope you'll visit us sometime soon. Greetings to Harry and Hermione -
Gred and Forge.
Ron snorted and grinned in spite of himself. The letter sounded so much like something Percy might send if he was feeling gracious, that when Percy did actually send a letter that sounded exactly like the one Fred and George had written, Ron had to laugh, even though normally there was no love lost between the youngest Weasley boy and his know-it-all brother.
What surprised Ron about the twins letter (even more than the fact that words like 'proclaim' actually existed in their vocabulary) was that they thought it was about time he and Hermione got together. He repeated the phrase in his head - it was inevitable that the two of you would eventually discover your true feelings for each other. Had they already known about this, maybe even since the summer holidays, and not told him? Stupid prats, Ron thought fondly and stuffed the letter into his pocket.
~*~
Hermione awoke on September 19th with a prickling sensation in her stomach; today was her 16th birthday. Lavender was already awake and squealed when she saw Hermione stirring.
"Happy birthday!" she shouted almost directly into Hermione's ear. Hermione moaned.
"Sweet sixteen," Parvati grinned, handing a very neatly wrapped gift over Hermione with a little flourish. "It's from both of us." Hermione unwrapped it carefully, trying to tear the paper as little as possible. Parvati grinned; the words "That's so typical of you, Hermione!" were written all over her face. They had bought a present for her together; a very fancy, deep orange quill made of a fwooper feather.
"Thanks so much!" Hermione's appreciation was genuine, because even though most people would have put 'quill' in the same category as 'socks' where presents were concerned, she was different. There was no use in giving her anything ornamental or chintzy; while Parvati's and Lavender's bedside tables were decorated with tacky picture-frames and such, Hermione's part of the room was nice, but demure. She had pictures of her friends and family in carved wooden frames, and a few plain, cream-coloured candles on her bedside table, and books on every available surface. She was not impolite enough to ever show she didn't like a present she had received, but she did indeed get a lot of gifts that she had no use for, simply because people were unwilling to give her anything "school-related", as they called it, for her birthday or Christmas, and insisted on forcing things upon her that, in her opinion, only cluttered up her space.
She dressed and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast, flanked by Parvati and Lavender who told everyone who didn't already know it, that it was her birthday today. She was blushing furiously by the time she reached the Gryffindor table and gratefully sat down between Ron and Harry. Ron had magicked a bowl of porridge, so that on its surface it bore the words: Happy Birthday, with much love, Ron. She smiled at him and gave him a kiss. Then she turned around and hugged Harry.
"We've got something for you, but we're not giving it to you here," he told her.
Back in the common room, Ron and Harry went straight up to their dorm, and Hermione followed. She dropped on Ron's bed, and he held her eyes closed as Harry rummaged around in his drawers.
"You can look now," he told her.
Ron took his hands off her eyes. Harry was holding a small box of dark blue velvet. The box alone looked expensive.
She took it, feeling the silky-soft velvet under her fingers. She was very practical, but contrary to her nature, velvet was one of her favourite fabrics; she loved the heavy, expensive material. She opened the box and gasped.
A perfectly symmetrical black opal, bordered in silver, on a delicate silver chain. The chain was curious; the links weren't simply circular, each was doubled back on itself like an exquisite little "s", and yet so delicate, as if it had been spun from a gossamer thread of silver-plated silk. On the silver bordering of the opal pendant, magic symbols of protection charms were engraved.
There were earrings, too. They were long and dangly and very fine; each consisted of an opal with two smaller ones suspended from it by a chain matching the one of the pendant.
"Wow," she breathed. "That's so beautiful."
"The pendant is from Ron, the earrings are from me," Harry told her. She hugged each of them in turn, when suddenly Dean came barging in. He caught sight of the box.
"Woah - that's some seriously cool jewellery!"
She agreed with him, and silently wondered how Harry and Ron could afford something so obviously expensive. But then again, Harry had such a huge amount of money, and could probably afford to have bought the entire shop, no matter where the pendant had come from. And she certainly wasn't going to admonish him for giving her something so beautiful. She thanked them again, and blushed when they both smiled at her.
"You know we both love you, Hermione. You may be Ron's girlfriend now, but you're still my best friend, and I hope that's not going to change. You're that important to us, and you're worth so much more. Your friendship..." He sneaked a glance at Ron and grinned, "is priceless."
Neville grew tired of staring at Ron and Hermione after a while, though, and stopped staring in favour of loading his plate with an ungodly amount of food, and proceeding to devour it at a tremendous rate.
The only person who seemed unfazed by the fact that Ron and Hermione were now an item was Ginny. She had her elbows on the table and her chin on her hands, staring off in the direction of the Slytherin table.
After they had all eaten (this taking notoriously long, as both Harry and Ron had second helpings of everything) they went off to class. They had the first period together, since all three of them had transfiguration as a N.E.W.T. subject, along with Lavender, Dean, Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley and three other Ravenclaw's. There were no Slytherins in their Transfiguration class, which suited Harry, Ron and Hermione fine. Even diplomatic Hermione had trouble with the more difficult Slytherins; some of them just weren't compatible with the rest of the Hogwarts students.
Transfiguration was one of Hermione's favourite subjects, and she knew that this was true for Ron and Harry as well. Professor McGonagall was strict, but a good and fair teacher, and her lessons were interesting. Hermione had far more subjects than Ron and Harry though, since she had started so many in third year and had dropped just enough subjects to not have to be forced to use a time-turner to be able to attend all her classes. Although all three of them were attending N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration, Potions, Defense against the Dark Arts and Charms, and Hermione took Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes, as well as a few other subjects, while Ron and Harry only had Care of Magical Creatures.
"Good morning, class. Today we will be continuing from last lesson. Would anyone like to revise what we did last time? Yes, Mister Longbottom?"
Neville had taken Transfiguration for lack of other subjects he was able to take; Snape would never have accepted him into N.E.W.T. level Potions, it was something of a miracle that both Harry and Ron had managed to qualify. The only thing Neville was really good at was Herbology, but of course, he wasn't allowed to restrict his selection to only one subject.
"We were talking about Transfiguration of objects made of silver."
"Quite right. Who can tell me why this is something special? Miss Granger?"
"The Transfiguration of objects made of silver is difficult because silver is a magical substance. It has magical properties that need to be taken into account before it can be Transfigured."
"Very good. When Transfiguring objects made of silver, you need to be extremely careful or there will be repercussions. If your concentration lapses, the power of your spell might rebound, and that could be very nasty indeed. I hope you have all read the pages I assigned. We will start with some smaller, not very powerful objects. Can someone tell me some shapes that give silver power? Yes, Miss Granger?"
"Circles and crosses."
"Very good, Miss Granger. Does anyone know why one would want to change the material that an object is made of?" She nodded at Lavender.
"To make them less dangerous, or effective. Something magical made of silver loses its magic its it's turned into copper for example."
"Very good. Five points for Gryffindor. This is only true for silver, and the spell is quite difficult. But seeing you all made it into my N.E.W.T. course, we will be doing very advanced magic this year, so please don't let your attention lapse at any time during this year ? you will need everything I have to teach you. Now, I will give you all some silver cutlery to Transfigure into copper. If you all manage that, we will move on to jewellery, bangles and such. This will be a lot harder, given the circular shape. Now, watch as I show you how to do it: one, two, three, aurorum ferrato!" The silver fork in front of her turned a metallic orange.
"To work, please."
She handed out some forks and spoons, and all around the room there were echoes of "Aurorum ferrato!" Hermione managed to turn her spoon into pure copper on the second try; Ron was having a bit more trouble.
"Mister Weasley, this is a silver-copper alloy. Concentrate!"
But at the end of the period he still had not been able to banish the last traces of silver from his fork.
He left the classroom muttering to himself. Hermione came up behind him and put her arms around him.
"Come on, you'll get the hang of it - we just started on it today." She removed her arms from around his waist and put her small hand in his larger one. Harry fell into step beside them as they walked along the corridors to Professor Flitwick's classroom together.
"I hope Flitwick's in a better mood today than he was last time," he said.
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "The homework he gave us was really foul - theory is necessary, I know. Constant vigilance!" he barked, imitating their former DADA teacher, Professor Moody. "But," he continued sarcastically, "I find five pieces of parchment about the properties of preservation charms and their use in Ancient Egypt a trifle superfluous. I had trouble staying awake reading the book - my eyes kept unfocusing. I have rarely been confronted with anything more boring..." He yawned demonstratively and Harry laughed.
"Please don't say that to his face - you're much too frank as it is, he can't deal with it. Poor Flitwick, his self-esteem is low enough without trampling around on it." He grinned at Ron, who pretended to be offended.
"Come on - I'm not that callous! You sound like you're talking about Malfoy! He's the one that tramples on people's self-esteem, not me!"
Harry let his jaw drop in alleged shock.
"Okay, I take it back... there's nothing more insulting than being compared to that slimy git!" he declared dramatically. Hermione sighed, and muttered something to herself that sounded suspiciously like "So immature sometimes..."
~*~
After lunch Hermione went off to Arithmancy, while Harry and Ron set out towards Hagrid's hut for a double period of CoMC.
Hagrid emerged from his cabin carrying a large box, and everyone craned their necks in an attempt to see what was inside, as to be able to scoot back towards the back of the group quickly if they found it necessary. But their fears were not justified, at least not today. Inside the box were about ten silvery-green lizards. Harry had thought they were small at first, but upon getting a better look at them, he saw they were actually much bigger, now that was strange...
"Now who've yeh can tell me what these nifty lil' creatures are?? Hagrid beamed around at all of them. Ron's hand went up, much to Harry's, and obviously Hagrid's, surprise.
"They're mokes. They can shrink at will - and if they're not shrunk, then they grow to about 10 inches. Their skin can shrink as well, even if they're not wearing it anymore, which makes things made of it hard to steal."
"Good on yeh, Ron. Five points for Gryffindor. O' course - yeh're right about the lizards and their skins - that's why purses an' pouches an' the like made of moke-skin are very prized. They're practically thief-proof. Now, I want y'all to come here quickly, to startle 'em, like, and watch how they shrink when they think they're in danger."
"I'm getting you a moke-skin purse for Christmas," Harry told Ron later.
"Yeah, I'll get you one, too!" Ron decided.
They spent the rest of the lesson watching the mokes shrinking and growing, feeding them, and drawing up diagrams, labeling them, making charts of what they ate. Mokes weren't terribly interesting, but Harry enjoyed the hands-on quality of the lesson. He always found that he remembered the things he worked out himself a lot better than notes he just copied down onto parchment. He had always wondered how Hermione had managed to stay awake throughout every single History of Magic lesson and take notes; he himself had always dozed off ten minutes into the lesson, rising from his stupor only when Professor Binns dismissed the class, and not remembering a single thing that had been said.
Ron savoured the fresh air, and he and Harry were reluctant to go back inside after CoMC. They were not looking forward to diminishing the pile of homework that awaited them, and, two hours later, they hadn't made much progress.
"I'm famished," Ron told Harry. "Let's go have dinner."
"You're always famished," Harry pointed out. "But since I'm hungry too, it's not a bad idea. I just finished my Charms essay, so I'm all-clear." Ron shot him a look; he hadn't finished writing down all the important points of the Protego Charm.
"I'll copy it from you later."
When they entered the Great Hall they saw Hermione already sitting at the Gryffindor table; they hadn't seen her all afternoon, Ron guessed she had been in the library. She was sitting next to Lavender, who was in her Study of Ancient Runes class. They were chatting animatedly about something Celtic - that was all Ron managed to decipher from the flow of words that made no real sense to him, since he didn't know the first thing about ancient runes. He sat down between her and Harry and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. She broke off in mid-sentence and turned to face him, a beautiful smile lighting up her features.
"Hey, you." She waved. "Haven't seen you around for a while - how was your afternoon?" She shot a glance at Lavender. "No, tell me later - I'm keeping someone waiting. Sorry!"
He raised one eyebrow at her; a gesture that she tried to mirror, but failed miserably.
"I'm going to have to ask you how you do that some other time - right now I'll be getting back to my absorbing discussion about hieroglyphic markings found on some old stones in Cornwall."
"Ah. I don't think I'll be joining that discussion. Much to your disappointment, I know. I'm afraid it has too much of a schoolwork air to it for me to be discussing it after hours," he teased her.
"Oh, Ron, don't be obnoxious," she told him, but gave him a kiss and turned back to Lavender again anyway. Ron grinned at Harry and reached for the soup-tureen and breadbasket. Something about Hogwarts Ron had always held in high regard was variety and diversity of the food; the school employed a large number of house-elves, and they outdid themselves at every meal. As much as Ron loved his mother's cooking, the food at school, well - there was just so much of it! The tables were jam-packed at every meal: porridge, eggs and bacon, toast, pastries, pancakes, sausages, hash-browns and a large selection of cereal just for breakfast.
He took full advantage of being surrounded by so much food; it was a miracle that he didn't weigh three tons; judging by the amount he ate, he should have been Dudley-sized.
"Stop gorging yourself like that - you're going to explode," Harry said severely. Harry wasn't picky himself, but even he didn't eat as much as Ron did, though you never would have guessed, and people not used to it were genuinely shocked when they saw what Ron could eat at any one time.
"No I'm not," Ron replied absently, and kept eating. When he was finished, Harry and Hermione exchanged mock-exasperated looks, and they all went up to the common room together.
"Antipodean Opaleye," Hermione said.
"Right you are," the Fat Lady told them, and swung aside to let them in. Hermione had already done all her homework, but stayed in the common room to help Ron and Harry. While they worked, she talked to Ginny, who had come up from dinner shortly after them.
Ginny was in her Fifth Year now - one year younger than Ron and the last of the Weasley children at Hogwarts. She was a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch-team, which was made up of her, Nathalie Thomas and Cassie Jordan as chasers, Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper as beaters, Harry as seeker and Ron as keeper. Harry had been seeker for the team since his first year at Hogwarts; most of the others had only joined the team the previous year. They were still pretty good though, and Harry hoped they would manage to win the cup again. He had been promoted to team-captain, and was busy working out game-strategies almost every spare minute he had.
He didn't want to be beaten by the Slytherins again; they were insufferable enough as it was. Harry had the feeling that the older they grew, the more abhorrent most of them became. There were, of course, exceptions, but the majority of the Slytherins were just... horrible. Their usual behavior made Harry want to land a punch right in the middle of that obnoxious smirk they all wore. It was another thing that was quintessentially Slytherin; he was sure no one else could smirk like that. Now there was something for him to ponder on a long, rainy evening...
~*~
The news that Hermione and Ron were now dating spread through the school like a wildfire; a lot of people who didn't know her personally thought she had been dating Harry, having seen her always hanging around him; they knew him of course.
She was famous at Hogwarts in her own right, being top of her year, and one of the smartest students in school. But for people who didn't know either of them it was easy to misinterpret their relationship.
Both Ron and Hermione received many claps on the back when the other wasn't around; Ron was one of the most coveted boys at school, and Hermione's name usually came up in the discussion of who the prettiest girls in school were; other names that fell were Ginny Weasley and Blaise Zabini, as well as Cho Chang and the Patil twins.
"Good on ya, Ron," Dean told him when he heard the news. He'd had a crush on Hermione himself in Fifth Year, but was over it now, and genuinely happy for Ron. Ron even got a letter from Fred and George:
Dearest Ron,
We wish to congratulate you on your newest achievement - it's good to see you carrying on the family tradition! We must also proclaim our approval of the chosen individual. It was inevitable that the two of you would eventually discover your true feelings for each other. That or the infamous Weasley-charm is finally working on her. We hope you'll visit us sometime soon. Greetings to Harry and Hermione -
Gred and Forge.
Ron snorted and grinned in spite of himself. The letter sounded so much like something Percy might send if he was feeling gracious, that when Percy did actually send a letter that sounded exactly like the one Fred and George had written, Ron had to laugh, even though normally there was no love lost between the youngest Weasley boy and his know-it-all brother.
What surprised Ron about the twins letter (even more than the fact that words like 'proclaim' actually existed in their vocabulary) was that they thought it was about time he and Hermione got together. He repeated the phrase in his head - it was inevitable that the two of you would eventually discover your true feelings for each other. Had they already known about this, maybe even since the summer holidays, and not told him? Stupid prats, Ron thought fondly and stuffed the letter into his pocket.
~*~
Hermione awoke on September 19th with a prickling sensation in her stomach; today was her 16th birthday. Lavender was already awake and squealed when she saw Hermione stirring.
"Happy birthday!" she shouted almost directly into Hermione's ear. Hermione moaned.
"Sweet sixteen," Parvati grinned, handing a very neatly wrapped gift over Hermione with a little flourish. "It's from both of us." Hermione unwrapped it carefully, trying to tear the paper as little as possible. Parvati grinned; the words "That's so typical of you, Hermione!" were written all over her face. They had bought a present for her together; a very fancy, deep orange quill made of a fwooper feather.
"Thanks so much!" Hermione's appreciation was genuine, because even though most people would have put 'quill' in the same category as 'socks' where presents were concerned, she was different. There was no use in giving her anything ornamental or chintzy; while Parvati's and Lavender's bedside tables were decorated with tacky picture-frames and such, Hermione's part of the room was nice, but demure. She had pictures of her friends and family in carved wooden frames, and a few plain, cream-coloured candles on her bedside table, and books on every available surface. She was not impolite enough to ever show she didn't like a present she had received, but she did indeed get a lot of gifts that she had no use for, simply because people were unwilling to give her anything "school-related", as they called it, for her birthday or Christmas, and insisted on forcing things upon her that, in her opinion, only cluttered up her space.
She dressed and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast, flanked by Parvati and Lavender who told everyone who didn't already know it, that it was her birthday today. She was blushing furiously by the time she reached the Gryffindor table and gratefully sat down between Ron and Harry. Ron had magicked a bowl of porridge, so that on its surface it bore the words: Happy Birthday, with much love, Ron. She smiled at him and gave him a kiss. Then she turned around and hugged Harry.
"We've got something for you, but we're not giving it to you here," he told her.
Back in the common room, Ron and Harry went straight up to their dorm, and Hermione followed. She dropped on Ron's bed, and he held her eyes closed as Harry rummaged around in his drawers.
"You can look now," he told her.
Ron took his hands off her eyes. Harry was holding a small box of dark blue velvet. The box alone looked expensive.
She took it, feeling the silky-soft velvet under her fingers. She was very practical, but contrary to her nature, velvet was one of her favourite fabrics; she loved the heavy, expensive material. She opened the box and gasped.
A perfectly symmetrical black opal, bordered in silver, on a delicate silver chain. The chain was curious; the links weren't simply circular, each was doubled back on itself like an exquisite little "s", and yet so delicate, as if it had been spun from a gossamer thread of silver-plated silk. On the silver bordering of the opal pendant, magic symbols of protection charms were engraved.
There were earrings, too. They were long and dangly and very fine; each consisted of an opal with two smaller ones suspended from it by a chain matching the one of the pendant.
"Wow," she breathed. "That's so beautiful."
"The pendant is from Ron, the earrings are from me," Harry told her. She hugged each of them in turn, when suddenly Dean came barging in. He caught sight of the box.
"Woah - that's some seriously cool jewellery!"
She agreed with him, and silently wondered how Harry and Ron could afford something so obviously expensive. But then again, Harry had such a huge amount of money, and could probably afford to have bought the entire shop, no matter where the pendant had come from. And she certainly wasn't going to admonish him for giving her something so beautiful. She thanked them again, and blushed when they both smiled at her.
"You know we both love you, Hermione. You may be Ron's girlfriend now, but you're still my best friend, and I hope that's not going to change. You're that important to us, and you're worth so much more. Your friendship..." He sneaked a glance at Ron and grinned, "is priceless."
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