Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Hermione Granger and the Weasley Wedding ❯ Hagrid's Gift ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5: Hagrid's Gift

 

It had been several days since the incident with Hermione and Krum and he had since Disapparated back to Durmstrang. Hermione and Ron had made some small talk over the last few days, but both had been afraid to pursue more in-depth conversations. They took their regular evening walk, and stayed out far later than usual. They missed dinner altogether, but instead watched the moonrise. The stars twinkled in the sky overhead. Hermione was thinking that tonight was probably not a good night for Lupin, since it was a full moon. Ron put his arm around her. It was the first time since the kiss the night of Hermione and Krum's kiss that he had touched her in a loving way. He had had to take time to get over it all, and Hermione understood that. They were leaning against the fence around the field.

“You know,” Hermione said, breaking the silence, “Ginny has not been acting normal lately.”

“What do you mean?” Ron asked absently, concentrating on the way the wind lifted Hermione's loose hair off her shoulders and the way the moon shone in her eyes when she looked up at him.

“Well, yesterday, I walked into the living area and she was sitting on the couch crying. I asked her why, and she said she didn't know. Then this morning, she was sitting on the lavatory floor when I went to bathe. She told me she was feeling ill, and then she went over the toilet throwing up so badly, I thought she had unwittingly taken one of Fred and George's candies and lost the half with the antidote. But then, she stopped, so I knew it wasn't that. A little while later, she said she was feeling fine.”

“Hmm, that is odd,” Ron agreed. “We should get back to the house. I think everyone will be asleep by now.” They walked back to the house slowly, hands intertwined. As Ron was opening the door, he was kissing Hermione. Her back was pressed to the doorframe. “Why don't you come up to my room for a bit before you go to sleep?”

“All right,” she readily agreed, her heart thumping loudly. They Apparated so as not to be heard on the stairs. Once in Ron's room, he lit a candle. He lay down on the bed and pulled Hermione down beside him. He took off his shirt so that he was only wearing his pants. He and Hermione began kissing once again, and quite passionately. Then Hermione did something she never thought she would do of her own free will. She stripped off her shirt, because she wanted to feel his skin against hers. They kissed for a while longer, and Hermione then told him that they needed to get some sleep.

“Stay here a bit longer, Hermione,” he begged.

“All right, but give me one of your shirts to sleep in. I'll go to Ginny's room in the morning before your mother figures it out. I can Apparate, after all. Turn around so I can change.” While his back was turned, she stripped her bra and pants off, leaving only her panties on. She put on his shirt, which was too big for her. It came nearly to her knees, so she felt she was sufficiently covered. She climbed under the covers beside Ron, and he put his arm back around her. They fell into a comfortable sleep. Before Hermione knew it, sunlight was streaming in the window. She aroused with a start.

“Ron!” she hissed as quietly as she could.

“But, Harry, I don't want to follow the spiders. Why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?” Ron asked sleepily.

“Ron, wake up!” Hermione whispered insistently. Finally his eyes opened.

“Hermione, you're still here!”

“Yes, and I need to Apparate to Ginny's room. I just thought you ought to know.” She grabbed up her clothes from the night before, kissed him quickly, and Disapparated. She messed up Ginny's bed sufficiently before throwing her dirty clothes down and pulling out clean ones for the day. She couldn't believe she had spent the night with Ron. Nothing bad had happened. They had just slept in the same bed. She rather thought it had been nice. She figured she could do it every night until Neville, Dean, and Seamus came back. She was smiling when she went down to breakfast. Ron was already there, as were the rest of the family and visitors. Everyone was again off to different places to run different errands except Mrs. Weasley. She planned to do laundry, the magical way, of course, but she had to gather up the dirty clothes all the same. Ron and Hermione decided to spend the day outdoors, even though the skies threatened rain. They walked and walked around and around the field laughing and talking about how they had fooled his mother the night before. They were just enjoying a most passionate kiss when the first raindrops hit them. They did not break apart just yet and by the time they did, it was pouring and they were soaked.

“Might as well walk back, because if we Apparate, Mum will be furious for getting her floor all wet and dirty.” Ron smiled at her, and they cantered slowly through the rain. Mrs. Weasley, however, was beyond furious when she met them at the door and it wasn't because they were wet.

“RONALD WEASLEY! WHAT IS THIS?!” She flashed something in front of his eyes so quickly; he had no idea what it was.

“Let me see it again, Mum, and I might be able to tell you.” What she held up in front of Ron made him flush crimson, and if it were possible, Hermione was an even darker shade of the color. She averted her eyes from Mrs. Weasley's accusing gaze. She was holding up Hermione's brassiere. “I—er—that is to say—er—I dunno…” Ron trailed off at a loss for words.

“I FOUND THIS IN YOUR ROOM ON YOUR FLOOR BESIDE YOUR BED! HOW DID IT GET THERE?! YOU HAD BETTER ANSWER ME. OH YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!!” Hermione chanced to sneak a look at Mrs. Weasley and what she saw wasn't pretty. She looked so livid, it was scary. Suddenly, she turned to Hermione. “And I suppose this belongs to you?” she asked, trying to keep her voice level, as Hermione was not her child. Hermione nodded, not able to bring herself to say anything; she was so embarrassed. “I will forthwith be writing to your parents. Until they give some response or come here at my request, you and Ron are not allowed anywhere alone together. Am I understood?”

“Yes,” they replied together.

“Good. Now both of you go to your rooms and do not come out until you are called. Better yet, I'll escort you. I wouldn't want there to be anything going on in the halls that I was not aware of.” As they walked behind Mrs. Weasley up the stairs, Ron gave Hermione's hand a little squeeze before she was forcibly ushered into Ginny's room and the door shut. She heard the retreating footsteps up the stairwell, and Mrs. Weasley coming back down.

She went to the window and looked glumly outside. She never thought she would feel unwelcome here, and yet she did. As she peered out the window into the dimness of the rain, she saw a speck approaching The Burrow. It looked to be an owl, but she wasn't sure. The speck got larger and larger as it got closer, and sure enough it was an owl. It pecked pleadingly at her window and she graciously opened it and let it in, glad to have any company whatsoever. She dug in her trunk right away for an owl treat and presented it. The owl dropped the soaked package on the bed along with a soaked letter and flew again out into the rain.

Hermione closed the window and picked up the letter first. Although it was a bit wet, she could still make out the writing. It was short. It contained two sentences that said: “I thought you might need this. See you at Hogwarts soon, Professor.” It was signed by Hagrid. She picked up the package and ripped it open to see its contents. It was a long, beautiful blue ribbon that was enchanted to sparkle like the stars in the sky. It was beautiful, she had to admit, but what on earth did she need it for? Hagrid clearly didn't know what her needs were. Perhaps he was congratulating her on getting the teaching position. Yes, that had to be it. She carefully folded the ribbon and put it in her trunk beside the unopened parcel Ron had sent her. She stood there looking at that parcel, wondering what was in it. She had just made up her mind that she was going to open it. She pulled it out and sat down on the bed with it.

Suddenly, she heard a click at the door, and she knew the door had been unlocked and the enchantment that made it impossible for her to Apparate had been lifted for the moment. A voice outside, clearly Mrs. Weasley's said, “You may come downstairs now. Your parents and Mr. Weasley are here. We are having a family conference.” Hermione preened in the mirror for a moment, although looks weren't going to get her anywhere in this situation. She changed into some dry clothing. She placed the unopened parcel back beside the ribbon. Instead of Apparating downstairs, which would have brought events about much too quickly, she dawdled down the stairs.

Ron was already in the living area when she arrived, looking miserable. His hair was still a bit wet as was hers, but, like Hermione he had changed into dry clothes as well. He was sitting between his parents. Her parents were sitting on another couch that had never been there before. She supposed that one of the Weasleys had zapped it in when the Grangers arrived. There was enough room between her parents for her and her mother patted the couch beside her. She sat down grumpily and stared at the floor.

“All right, Mrs. Weasley, let's have it. What is this all about?” Mrs. Granger asked.

“People are going to look at me strangely at work for the rest of my life,” Dr. Granger (who was a dentist) moaned. “Honestly, we `Muggles' as you call us do not receive owl post, and most especially not at work!”

“He is right, Molly,” Arthur said gently. “We did promise that we wouldn't send them owl post at work.”

“Well, this is important, Arthur, don't you agree?” Molly practically screeched. Arthur nodded, knowing that arguing with his wife now would most certainly be a lost cause. “I found this,” she said, holding up Hermione's perpetrating brassiere, “in Ronald's room this morning. Your daughter admitted it was hers.”

“Hermione!” Mrs. Granger shrieked appallingly.

“Now, wait a minute,” Dr. Granger appeased. “Perhaps we should hear it from their side before we go making any judgments. I don't think they're in any position to lie to us after all. Hermione, why don't you tell us just what happened?”

Hermione took a deep steadying breath. She had not truly expected to have to talk. She had thought that they would just berate her and take her home away from Ron for a while. “Well,” she began shakily, “Ron and I were out watching the moonrise last night. It was quite late when we finally decided to come inside, but we weren't ready yet to go to bed.” She took another deep breath and plunged on, figuring, as her father had said, she was in no position to lie at this point. “Ron asked me if I would like to come up to his room for a while and talk some more. I told him I would, and we Apparated so as not to wake anyone by trampling up the stairs. He lit a candle and we talked for a while. I was beginning to fall asleep and asked if I could put on one of his shirts for a while and I made him turn his back while I changed. I figured if I was going to stay a while, I might as well be comfortable. I lay there for a long while after Ron blew the candle out. The next thing I knew, it was morning. I grabbed up my clothes and Apparated to my room. That's it. That's all that happened. I swear to you on Ron's life.” She said this last bit to emphasize that nothing else was going on up there. “Oh, and I got an odd gift from Hagrid today,” she added, completely off the subject. “It was a quite lovely blue ribbon that is bewitched to sparkle like the stars. I don't know why he sent it to me.”

“Did you now?” Mrs. Weasley said in a soft, odd sort of tone of voice. But she shook her head. “We'll talk about that later. Now—”

“I think Hermione has cleared all that up for us,” Dr. Granger said, rubbing his temples. He was getting a headache from all of this.

“But we don't know if she was telling the truth—”

“Who was telling the truth about what?” Fred and George had just Apparated into the room.

“Really, boys, this is a private—”

“C'mon, Mum!” Fred whined.

“We might know more than you think we do!” George interjected.

“Mum thinks that Hermione and I slept together!” Ron blurted. “Well, we did sleep in the same bed, but not that way!” he exclaimed, blushing.

“Oh, well, I can't help you there, but Ginny might be able to. She said she was up late last night. She said she was pretty sick. Oi, Ginny!”

“Yes?” Ginny poked her head around the corner from the kitchen.

“Mum wants to know—” George began.

“—if ickle Ronniekins and Hermione…well…you know.”

“Nah,” Ginny replied nonchalantly. This was not the Ginny Hermione was used to. The old Ginny would have blushed at the thought of these things, but she was married now, after all. “I was in the lavatory most of the night being sick. I would have heard them. I'm going back to the kitchen. I hope I helped.” Hermione and Ron were sitting there looking immensely relieved.

“Well, how should we handle this?” Mrs. Granger asked tiredly.

“They didn't really do anything wrong, Mrs. Weasley,” Dr. Granger chimed in yawning.

“They're right, Molly,” Arthur said encouragingly. She sighed.

“All right, well, no more spending the night in each other's rooms, at least until you get married if you decide to do so,” Molly said.

“Does this mean we can go?” Dr. Granger asked hopefully.

“I believe so,” his wife replied.

 

“It was bloody brilliant!” Fred crowed when informed of the whole story of Ron and Hermione's latest adventure.

“Boy, our house is turning into a real monkey-show!” George exclaimed delightedly. Fred, George, Ron, and Hermione were all sitting in the living area. Harry was off nursing Ginny, and Fleur, Bill, and Ellie were enjoying a late dinner. Charlie, Arthur, and Molly had already gone to bed.

“We are not monkeys!” Hermione informed him.

“Every time we come home for dinner, something else interesting has happened. Boy, Ron you picked a good one. She makes our house exciting. Have her over more often, will you?” Everyone laughed. Hermione and Ron decided to turn in when Bill and Fleur came to take over the living area to sleep. Fred and George Disapparated back to their flat over the joke shop. Ron kissed Hermione good night outside Ginny's room.

“I'd ask you up to my room…” he trailed off with a sheepish smile. Hermione just shook her head and gave him a hug.

“You're hopeless, Ronald Weasley, you know that?” Laughing, she gave him one last kiss and went to bed.