Friends Forever....Or Not?

Chapter 7

Professor Cambridge sat in her office waiting for Rita to come back. She was getting very impatient.

"Come on, where are you?" she asked herself.

Just then, she saw a little beetle crawling across her desk.

"What took you so long?" Cambridge jumped up and yelled to Rita.

Rita transformed back into her human form and answered. "Well, if you were as tiny as me, it would take you just as long. I'll have you know, I almost got squished. Twice!"

"Fine, whatever. So, is it going alright?"

"As far as I can tell, it is."

"Does she suspect anything?"

"I don't think so...I sent Draco Malfoy the letter as you told me to. By the way, what was in that letter?"

"Well, it was from 'Draco's father.' I didn't want him to stay her for Christmas vacation, so I decided that his father wants him home right about then."

"Oh, I see."

"When will he be getting it?"

"Probably tonight."

"Probably?! He better get it tonight or else the whole plan will be ruined!"

"Don't worry, he will...So, what exactly is the plan? You haven't been very clear about it."

Cambridge sat back down and sighed. "Well, you know about the curse we put on Hermione, right?"

"The Imperius Curse?" Rita questioned.

"Yes. Well, if we can control her, she won't be telling anyone about us. And we can have a little fun of our own with it."

"What kind of fun?"

"We can get some good stories out of her, Rita. I'm not an undercover reporter for nothing, you know."

"I know. Neither am I...Then what?"

"Well, she'll do what we tell her to do. Like, for example, you know how she is dating Draco Malfoy?"

"Yeah."

"Well, she's not going to be for long. I am going to make her brake up with him."

"And how do you expect us to pull that off? She's in love with the guy?"

"Honestly, Rita. The Imperius Curse. Remember? We will be in control of her."

"Oh, yeah."

"Well, anyway, she is going to break up with him. Draco will be pissed and we will have a great story. And then, even better yet, you are going to go to Draco and tell him what we are doing. He will want revenge on Hermione and we'll convince him to help us with our stories. He'll come in handy when we want an inside view."

"But what if they still don't break up, despite the things we've done?"

"Trust me, I will make them break up...I just hope this plan works."

"I have one more question."

"What?"

"What are we going to do with Hermione when the school year is done and we don't need her anymore?"

"Give her a new memory," Cambridge said, smiling.

* * *

"Hi, Mrs. Weasley! Hi, Mr. Weasley!" shouted Harry.

They had just walked into the Burrow. It was packed. Everyone was there.

"Hey, Harry! Ron! How have you been? Oh, Ginny, I'm so glad to see you!" shouted a whole bunch of voices.

It was chaos. For ten minutes this went up. You couldn't even hear your own voice. Soon after that, everyone started to unpack and get settled in.

"Supper is ready!" yelled Mrs. Weasley. "Everyone come and sit down to eat!"

Harry went to join the Weasleys as they sat down. He noticed all the chairs stuffed around the table. They were crammed in every way possible. He sat down next to Ron and Fred.

"This food is great Mrs. Weasley!" said Harry. "I'm already on my second helping!" The food on the table was enchanted and kept reappearing.

"Please, eat as much as you want!" said Mrs. Weasley graciously.

After supper, Mrs. Weasley brought out dessert. It was a huge chocolate cake with a lot of fudge frosting. It was gone in five minutes flat.

"Well kids, I think it's time for you all to go to bed. You'll be up early tomorrow morning," said Mr. Weasley.

"Dad, come on. We're too old to go to bed this early," said Bill, pointing at himself, Charlie, and Percy.

"Oh, no you're not. When you're with your mother and me, you listen to us. Got it?" said Mr. Weasley.

"Oh, fine," said Charlie.

"Now go on, get to bed," said Mrs. Weasley.

There was a chorus of "goodnights" and everyone headed upstairs.

Harry had decided to sleep in Ron's room on an extra bed. How they fit the bed in there, Harry did not know. He had just fallen asleep when he heard someone whispering his name.

"Harry, are you awake?" whispered a voice.

"Huh?...Yeah, I'm awake now," Harry whispered back to the voice. He opened his eyes and looked up. It was George. "George? What do you want? We're supposed to be sleeping."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, this will only take a couple of minutes. Come on."

"Come where?" groaned Harry at the thought of having to get up.

"Up to our room. We want to show you something. Hurry up, before you wake Ron up."

Harry got up, put his robe on, and followed George to his room. In there, he found Fred waiting for them.

"What took you so long?" asked Fred.

"I couldn't get Harry up," said George.

"Sorry," said Harry, still half-asleep. "What did you want to show me?"

"We wanted to show you how we are doing with our joke shop," said George.

"We still have quite a bit of money left over. We are using it wisely," said Fred.

"That's good," said Harry.

"Yeah, we have a whole bunch of order forms made out. We even came up with some more ides," said George.

"So your parents still don't know about this, huh?" asked Harry.

"No way! They'd probably kill us if they found out. It's been hard, but we're keeping it a secret," said George.

"Why don't your parents want you to start up a joke shop anyway?" question Harry.

"They don't think we're serious," said Fred.

"At first, they thought it was some immature thing that we were into and that we'd grow out of it. They thought wrong though. We really want to do this. We could make a real business out of this," said George.

"You should tell them that," said Harry.

"Nah, they'd never understand," pointed out George.

"And we're doing just fine by ourselves...well, with you too. We couldn't have done this without you. In about five months, we'll be completely done with school. We plan to work full time on our shop. We'll probably move out and find another place to live. This way our parents won't have any control over us and the things we do," said Fred.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," said Harry.

"Hey, did Ron mention anything about all the stuff we gave him?" asked Fred.

"Oh, yeah, he did. All I can say is you guys better do a better job of hiding this from Ron if you want this to stay a secret," said Harry.

"Why? What did he say?" wondered George.

"Well, not much, but he was getting a little suspicious. You guys aren't acting normal doing this and he's noticed," said Harry.

"Oh, well. If he did find out, hopefully he wouldn't tell...So, did he like his new clothes?" asked Fred.

"He loved them. He was so excited. Thank you guys so much for buying him all that stuff," said Harry.

"Well," said George, "we couldn't have bought him any of that stuff if you wouldn't have given us that money, and you know it."

"I had no use for that money. You two did," said Harry.

"We still can't tell you how much we appreciate you for giving that to us. Thank you so much," said Fred.

"You're welcome. Now if you two don't mind, I'm going to go back to bed. I'm ready to fall asleep just standing here," said Harry.

"Ok, goodnight, Harry," said Fred.

"Yeah, goodnight," added George. "Oh, and sorry for waking you up."

"That's ok. Goodnight you guys," said Harry.

Harry walked back to Ron's room and fell asleep right away. He was happy for Fred and George. They really did deserve that money.

* * *

"Hey, Harry, Merry Christmas!"

Harry suddenly woke up. Ron was yelling something.

"Harry, wake up, it's Christmas!"

"Ok, ok, I'm up!"

They got dressed and went downstairs. The living room was full of people...and presents. Harry and Ron were the last to arrive.

"Well, good morning, everyone! Merry Christmas!" said Mr. Weasley.

"Merry Christmas!" they all chanted.

They spent all morning talking and opening presents. From Ron, Harry got a book about Quidditch that he had wanted. Harry had given Ron a big basket full of sweets. He loved that. And like usual, everyone, including Harry, received a sweater from Mrs. Weasley. For Harry, this was the best Christmas ever. There was only one thing that would have made it all better: Hermione. He was really starting to miss her, not just as a girl he likes, but also as a friend. Deep down, Harry was wishing that they would have never had that argument. He wanted their friendship back. The only thing that was stopping him from saying, "I'm sorry" to Hermione was that he had promised Ron that he would continue with the fight. Harry wasn't about to let Ron down. So, he found a simpler way of doing things. He had Ron convinced that his crush on her was over with. It really wasn't, though. He tried to forget about her, but it didn't work out to well. He just kept it to himself for now. He fell asleep that night thinking about Hermione.

* * *

Hermione woke up very early on Christmas morning. She decided to wait to open any presents and go find Draco. She was very excited. She got dressed and left the common room. She couldn't wait to give him his present. And to see what he got her. She was walking in the corridors when a sixth year Slytherin came up to her.

"Hey, are you Hermione Granger?" asked the Slytherin.

"Yes, I am. Why? Who wants to know?" Hermione replied back.

"I have a note that Draco Malfoy gave to me to give to you."

"Oh, ok. Thanks."

Hermione took the note and the Slytherin left. She opened it up.

Hey, Hermione,

I am so sorry, but last night after I talked to you I got an owl from my father. He wanted me to come home right away. He said it was urgent. So I went. I had to. I will be staying there for the rest of our vacation. We can exchange our presents when we get back. And again, I am so sorry. I hope you can forgive me. I'll talk to you later.

Love, Draco

Hermione's eyes started to fill with tears. She walked slowly back to her room and stayed there all morning. She was thinking to herself. Why did he have to do this? He could have at least said goodbye in person, but a note? She was beginning to think that he didn't care about her that much. If he did, then he wouldn't have done this. He was always doing things like that. Hermione thought that he loved her, but most of the time, he didn't show it. He would always ignore her when they were with Draco's friends. It was like she didn't matter to him that much. She was just someone to love when no one else was around. She was getting sick of it. She didn't have to put up with this. She decided that when Draco gets back from Christmas vacation, she was breaking up with him. She just didn't feel that special connection with him anymore. She really didn't want to break up with him, but she had to. For her own good. He didn't treat her like he should have and look where it got him.

Hermione needed someone to talk to. Since all her friends were either gone or mad at her, she decided to go visit Hagrid. She grabbed Hagrid's present and her cloak and headed to his hut. Luckily, when she got there, he was home. She didn't even have to knock before Hagrid opened the door and welcomed her in.

"Well, hello Hermione!" greeted Hagrid.

"Hi," she replied.

"Would yeh like some tea?" he asked kindly.

"Yes please," said Hermione as she sat down in Hagrid's chair.

"So, what have yeh been doin' lately?" asked Hagrid.

"Nothing really."

"I thought yeh would've been with Draco today. Where is he?"

"At home," said Hermione quietly.

"Oh, I thought yeh said he was stayin' here for Christmas," said Hagrid puzzled.

"He was. I got a note from him this morning. He left last night to go home. Something about his father wanting him home and stuff. Anyway, I was thinking and I am going to break up with him when he gets back. Not just because of this, but he's done so many things in the past and I'm just getting sick of it."

Hagrid just sat there and stared at her.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" asked Hermione.

"Oh, no, no, definitely not," said Hagrid.

"Then what?"

"I'm really proud of yeh Hermione."

"Why?"

"For decidin' to break up with him. It's not goin' to be easy, but yeh're willing to do it. It takes a lot of courage to end it with someone...especially like Draco."

Hermione just smiled. "Thanks, Hagrid."

"Anytime, Hermione."

"Well, I better be getting back to my common room. Bye, Hagrid. Happy Christmas."

"Bye, Hermione. Happy Christmas to you too."

Hermione walked back to her common room very slowly. She had no idea what she was going to do. She wanted someone there with her. Anyone. She was all alone for the whole Christmas vacation. This would definitely not be her favorite Christmas. When she got to the entrance she told the fat lady the password. (Purtella) She walked in. She looked around the common hoping to find someone. Not a single person was in there. It was just her. She went and sat in the chair by the fire. She was just getting ready to feel sorry for herself when she noticed something lying on the table next to her chair. She looked closer. It was a journal. She picked it up and looked for a name. She didn't find one, but maybe that's because she wasn't looking her hardest...She opened it up and started reading. Then, after getting half way down the page, and still not knowing whose it was, she came back into reality and quickly put it back down. She couldn't do this. It wasn't hers. She would be invading someone's privacy. But, curiosity got the better of her. She made sure no one was around, picked up the journal, and started to read it again. This time, she didn't put it down.

* * *

Harry was lying awake in bed. He was sad because Christmas was over with. This was his favorite Christmas ever. He didn't want it to end. But it did. It was now morning. He actually got to sleep in for once. He looked over at Ron's bed. It was empty. Harry figured that he slept in too much. He got up, got dressed, and went downstairs. There, he found Ron sitting at the table.

"Harry, you're finally up! Come on. Grab your broom, let's go."

"Go where?"

"To play Quidditch, of course! Fred, George, and Ginny are waiting for us outside."

"Oh!" He ran back upstairs and grabbed his Firebolt. He was just about to go out the door when he heard Mrs. Weasley shouting at him.

"Harry! Harry! You must eat something before you go out. You can't play on an empty stomach," yelled Mrs. Weasley.

Harry stopped and turned around. He didn't want to argue with her. He sat down at the table where she already had some eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice waiting for him. He ate as fast as he could.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley!" said Harry as he ran out of the door. They were all waiting for him, holding their brooms. "Sorry, guys. Your mom made me eat breakfast."

"That's ok. We didn't think she'd let you out here without eating something first."

As they walked over to the backyard to play Quidditch, Harry caught a glance at the Weasley's brooms. Then he glanced at his. A surge of guilt ran across Harry. His broom was easily the best broom there. He tried to forget about it. Ron went to go get the Quidditch balls and they were ready to play.

"Hey, Ron. I though we really couldn't play Quidditch out here. Can't muggles see us?" asked Harry with curiosity.

"Nope. Our dad enchanted our yard just last year. We can go as high as we want without anyone seeing us," replied Ron.

"Cool."

"Come on, let's form two teams," said Fred.

"But we need more people. We can't have an uneven number. It won't be fair," Ginny protested.

"Well, hmm..." thought George. "I know. Someone go get Percy. We'll make him play. Oh, and get Bill and Charlie too. Maybe they'll want to play."

"Ok," said Ginny, as she dropped her broom and ran towards the house. She came back with all three. "Luckily, I convinced them to play," she said with an evil grin.

"This is excellent. Now we can have two teams of four. That will work out great," said Fred.

They decided on teams. Harry, George, Percy, and Ron were on one team. Fred, Charlie, Ginny, and Bill were on the other team.

"Here are the rules," said George. "Since there is four of us on each team, there will obviously be one playing each position. There will be one Chaser, one Keeper, one Beater, and one Seeker. Otherwise, all the other rules are the same, ok?"

There was a chorus of "yeahs." They decided on who was going to do what. On the first team, Harry was Seeker, George was Beater, Percy was Keeper, and Ron was Chaser. On the second team, Charlie was Seeker, Fred was Beater, Bill was Keeper, and Ginny was Chaser. They all got into their positions and the game started. They played all day long. They stopped keeping score after a while. They were just playing for fun. Finally, they had to stop because it was getting too dark out and Mrs. Weasley was yelling at them to come in.

After eating supper, Harry went up to Ron's room. He was exhausted. This has been the most fun he's had in a long time. Within an hour everyone was sleeping. Everyone except Harry. He just couldn't get to sleep. Between the ghoul in the attic making so much noise and all his thoughts about Hermione, he would never get to sleep. He decided to do something he hadn't done in a while. He was going to write in is journal. He had almost decided not to bring it, but at the last minute, he decided to bring it anyways. He went over to his bag to look for it. He looked everywhere for it, but couldn't find it. Then, it dawned on him. Right before he left for vacation, he was in the Gryffindor Common Room, sitting in the chair next to the fireplace, and writing in it. He had forgotten his journal there.