Hogwarts, Hormones And Everything Else

~Chapter Two - Nothing Is Perfect~

Chris turned to Harry as he slammed the back door of the Range Rover. "I'm hoping that's all, I can't imagine what either of them could have possibly left behind!"

Harry had to agree, even with the Engorgement Charm Ivy had put on the car, it was looking as if it felt like groaning. He knew Ivy and Chris were going to have their own house at Hogwarts and apparently, Hermione had decided to take advantage of this and bring a lot of things she ordinarily left at home. As she had predicted, there had been a battle over which books to bring and which ones to leave behind, even though Chris had reminded them Molly could send along whatever they were missing, once she and Arthur left the Burrow, and were staying in London. As he and Chris stood there, gazing concernedly at the Range Rover, Ivy and Hermione came down the front stairs and burst into laughter.

"I don't think we'll make it far, looking like that," Ivy said, when she could talk again. "We'd be stopped by the police before we'd gone far, if we didn't fall over first." She looked around carefully then pulled out her wand and muttered, "Compactus Invertis" and the car once again shrunk to normal size, and seemed to look stable. "I promise, when we pack up to do this again, we'll do separate Shrinking Spells on everything. It just seemed like a lot of trouble, when I could take care of it all with one."

"No problem, " answered Chris, giving her a hug. "Now that we've begun living this way, I wish you hadn't waited so long to take up magic again. And I should be able to do some spells by the time we come back, I hope."

Hermione grinned at Harry , and rolled her eyes, but he knew she was glad her parents were so happy together. He was too. It made life a lot smoother, instead of having to listen to Petunia and Vernon's constant bickering. He opened the door and Hermione put Crookshanks, in his basket.on the seat. Then she slid in after him, followed by Harry. He noticed that, like the Weasley's car a few years before, this seat had become as wide as a park bench. Apparently, Hermione's parents wanted to be sure they weren't sitting too close together! It hadn't done much good though, because Hermione still was sitting close to him, and it wasn't long before she had drifted off to sleep with her head on his chest.

"Errr, Hermione has fallen asleep," he told her parents in as loud a voice as he dared, without waking her up. "I think she might be falling over if I don't hold her up, you know."

"Go ahead, Harry, just don't let her fall on Crookshanks. Now everyone get ready, I've put an Invisibility Charm on the car, and we're going to give it a try in a moment." Ivy looked excited, but Harry couldn't help thinking of the last time he'd been in the Weasleys' car and the Charm had been faulty. He noticed Chris looked a bit concerned as well, and apparently Ivy noticed. "Oh come on, you two, it'll get us there much more quickly, once we're invisible, we can let the car fly."

"We could just buy a small plane," Chris answered weakly, but then he smiled ,"Okay, let's try it. May as well, there'll be a lot to get used to from now on, I reckon."

"Yeah," said Harry enthusiastically. "The Weasleys have got a ghoul in the attic and a bunch of little gnomes running around in the garden. It's a fun house to visit, and you never know what's going to come to life next." He soon found himself drifting and then it seemed only minutes until Chris was shaking his and Hermione's shoulders.

"All right, time to wake up, we'll be there in a minute or two." Ivy said over her shoulder. He looked around and sure enough, there they were at the village nearest the Weasleys' house, Ottery St. Catchpole. Harry remembered driving through the village in those cabs on the way to take the train to school last year, and the cab drivers had been really angry, with Fred and George's fireworks and their assorted trunks and animals.

Hermione was rubbing her eyes and looking confused. "What happened, how did we get here that fast?"

"Your mother did a bit of magic," Chris told her. "Why don't we just leave it at that. Considering what you told us about Harry and Ron's trip to school that second year..."

"We flew here? How do we know we weren't seen. Oh no, we're going to be in so much trouble!" Hermione wailed, but her mother cleared her throat slightly,and replied, "We weren't seen, Hermione, we were invisible!"

Harry had to laugh at the expression on Hermione's face. In some ways, he guessed Hermione was still having some trouble remembering she was no longer the only one who could do magic in the family. He wondered how he'd feel if his aunt or uncle had suddenly begun doing spells. No, that was too ridiculous to even think of.

They pulled up the lane to the Weasley's house and Harry felt himself begin to smile. This always felt like home to him, and he always remembered the first time he had arrived, when he was twelve, and Mrs. Weasley had come charging out of the house, furious with Ron and the twins.

The front door of the house opened and out poured enough red hair to look as if the house was spitting fire. Mrs. Weasley was yelling at the top of her voice for her children to stay back until the car stopped, but it was no use. The car came to a stop because it had to, Fred, George and Charlie had jumped up on the front and rode in with them the last two hundred yards, before Ivy stopped.

"All right," she said, laughing as she climbed down from the driver's seat. "You want us to stop this far from the house, you can carry things in."

"No problem," Bill called from the porch. He pulled out his wand,and shouted "Accio, luggage!" At this the back flipped open and a steady stream of suitcases, trunks and boxes began drifting through the door and open windows. "I'll pile them all in the dining room!" he called, and disappeared.

"So much for our careful packing," Chris said wryly to Harry.

___________

Several hours later, they were all seated outdoors, watching Crookshanks chase gnomes across the garden. Most of the downstairs furniture had been floated outdoors, and Mr. Weasley was proudly showing Chris and Ivy his collection of plugs. Chris had a diagram of their house in London, and he had been advising Molly and Arthur on the best way to deal with anything that might come up around the house."Quite clever, the way you've managed to get by without magic all these years," Arthur said, but Molly was shaking her head.

"All of those little things you use with plugs might have been all well and good when you weren't using your wand, Ivy," she said. "I hope you won't mind if I pack them up, and use my wand and the spells I'm accustomed to?"

"Did you tell Ivy about the story?" Ginny asked.

"No, I was waiting until I heard from them again," Molly answered. "But now as you've brought it up.....Witch Weekly is hoping to do a story on Domestic Charms and Spells for Large Families and....."

"They came to the right place," Ron finished.

"No, Moron Boy," Ginny snapped. "We are wondering if Ivy and Chris will let us use their house. I'll come up and take the pictures, we thought maybe Hermione could come up with me."

"And I could borrow your Firebolt, Mom?" Hermione asked, and immediately there was dead silence. Harry, who had been playing chess with Ron nearby, was sure he hadn't heard correctly. Hermione rarely even got on one of the school's slower brooms, and now she was talking about riding a Firebolt?

"Harry could teach me how to ride while we're here, maybe?" She looked at him appealingly, and he nodded, wondering what she was going to surprise him with next.

Ron, however, was snickering, as he muttered, " I gotta see this, Hermione on a Firebolt! I can hear it now, "Ooh Harry, does it have to go so fast? Does it have to make those sharp turns?" No, you oughta just use our old Shooting Star." he chortled, and Harry tried to prepare himself for fireworks, but Hermione only looked mildly irritated..

"Shut up, Ron, before I turn you into a bowtruckle," she replied, adding scornfully, "No one's asking you for flying lessons!"

At this Fred and George began to laugh from where they had been playing Gobstones, but stopped as they could hear a fluttering sound. "Mail's here!" they shouted in unison, and sure enough, the next moment several owls flew in, dropping mail among the group.

"I have to leave tomorrow," Charlie groaned. "A new group of Opal Eyes in Australia, we've got to calm them down."

"Lee is coming for a few days, and bringing his friend, that American wizard," said George, and Fred, seeing the look on his mother's face, added, "You said he could, Mum, when we were in Paris. Must've been the wine, eh?"

Harry didn't feel nearly as pleased about this as the twins, and as soon as he could, he motioned for Ron and Hermione to walk up to the paddock with him. Ron was looking pleased about something, and Harry saw him drop a folded paper casually into Ginny's lap. As the three friends began to walk, they saw Ginny scurry into the house. "Adrian, " Ron said simply.

"And you heard from him, as well?" asked Hermione, her eyes twinkling. "Nice to have mail from your sister's crush, I suppose."

Ron's freckles disappeared in a sea of crimson, and he replied, "Not that it's any of your business, Nosy, but it was from Danielle. She was wondering what day we'll be in Diagon Alley. I, uh, told her I'd give her some help, finding stuff."

"I wonder why she didn't ask me," Hermione said, trying her best to look puzzled. "We've known each other longer."

"Maybe she thought you'd be too busy, stuck to Famous Harry Potter!" snorted Ron.

"Give it a rest, you two, something strange is going on here," Harry said impatiently. "Ron, has Lee ever come here and brought a friend?"

"We-ell, no. Actually Lee hasn't been here in a few years. The last time he came, he brought along a Knarl. Mum had forgotten their habits, and you know how she's always pushing food on everyone. That darn thing destroyed our entire garden, after she offered it a plate of Brussels sprouts and pork chops we had left over." Ron grimaced, remembering that time. "Mum made us dig and redo the entire garden, while Lee left to take the creature home. Personally, I think Mum had too much wine too."

"Harry thinks there's something odd about that American wizard, Ron. Is the feeling stronger, Harry?" Hermione asked, looking concernedly at him. "Maybe it's time we said something to Mom, or you wrote to Sirius?"

"They've got enough to do, your parents have to settle in at Hogwarts, and Sirius is on the edge of being cleared, I'm not going to tell him anything that might bring him back before things are settled." He looked at the two of them, and asked, "Can you trust me on this one? There's something odd about him, my scar wasn't hurting but it felt cold. That makes no sense I know, but I'm glad the guy is coming here. It'll give us a chance to keep an eye on him. If anything happens, I say we tell your parents, Ron. I know they have been communicating with Dumbledore,and I think this guy wants to get into a house belonging to a ministry wizard. He may even be in with Fudge, and not be who he says he is."

"Could be, I didn't really pay much attention while he was there in Paris, but then I'm not able to tune in through my scar. Now I'm going down to check about our trip to Diagon Alley, then I need to do some writing." Ron looked eager to move along, and Harry and Hermione laughed.

"Oh, got an essay to finish for Professor Binns?" Harry asked. "We'll be along in a while."

"Don't wait up, " said Hermione, as she slid her arms around Harry. "We'll be brushing up on our Astronomy."

"Yeah right!" replied Ron, and even in the dark they could see him smirk. "I think the subject is Anatomy."

"He's right, you know. I meant to talk to you about a dream I had last night," Harry told Hermione as he sat down and pulled her into his lap.

~~~~~~~~~

The next morning most of them were up early to see Charlie, Chris and Ivy off, and Arthur had to return to work at the Ministry. It took some time, reloading the Range Rover, since, as promised, Ivy did variations of Shrinking Spells on each box, bag or suitcase.

"Some of these can go straight into storage," Ivy told them. "Now don't get me confused." She picked up her wand, and yelped as it turned into a ferret. "Oh, no, Fred and George have been here!" She reached behind her again and this time, found her own wand and muttered some words Harry couldn't understand. The ferret disappeared up the stairs and very shortly, they could hear shouts from Fred and George who were still sleeping when Harry, and the others came down.

"I guess the ferret was well trained to do some ferreting," Ivy said, innocently, and in a moment the twins appeared downstairs, rubbing various body parts. "Sleep well, boys?" she asked, and in spite of themselves Fred and George grinned at her.

"Just wanted to have a bit of fun," George said.

"Never had anyone staying here who was working at Hogwarts. We thought you might have some kind of instructions for getting 'round Filch," added Fred.

After all of the good-byes, and Molly tearfully reminding Charlie to wear his longest dragonhide gloves, and Arthur not to stay late at work, things settled down a bit. They took Harry's Firebolt and the other, slower brooms up the hill to the paddock, and in a surprisingly short time, Hermione had become accustomed to the faster movements. Harry was teaching her how to make some of the dives and swooping movements he used in quidditch and Fred and George showed her how they went for the bludgers.

In a short time, they heard voices coming up the hill, and saw Lee and Damien. Harry noticed the American still wore all black and silver, a fact that for some reason he found annoying. Didn't the guy know he was visiting in an ordinary country wizard's home. Fred, George, Ron and Lee were dressed as he was, in faded jeans and t-shirts, but Ginny had on a short denim skirt and a peach colored top, and Hermione was dressed in short black shorts with a white band at the waist, and a black, yellow and white tank top. Somehow she managed to look athletic but very feminine, and he knew he hadn't imagined the admiring look Damien gave her. 'Another reason not to like him!' he thought, though he tried to tell himself not to act like a jealous prat, when Hermione had barely spoken to Damien.

As the morning wore on, he had to admit, he respected the new student's talent on a broom, and he wasn't the only one. Both Fred and George told him he should try out for quidditch, and George mentioned Hufflepuff's need for a new seeker for the coming year. Somehow after this, enthusiasm seemed to wear thin, and not too long afterwards they began to straggle down the hill. Harry heard Lee telling Damien that they all tried to steer away from mention of the Triwizard Tournament around Harry, and George muttering that he had really messed up that time. He gritted his teeth and wished that for once in his life, people wouldn't have a reason to treat him differently.

Back at the Burrow, when they all trooped in, Molly shooed them upstairs to change, since they were covered in grass and dirt from some of the less graceful landings. Hermoione's knees were almost completely green, since the first few times she came down to the ground, she hadn't gotten the hang of a landing of any kind. Harry smiled to himself, remembering that she had asked him whether the broom could go slower, just as Ron had predicted, but by the time they were all tired, she had surprised them all with the speed she had achieved, and a few tricky dives that Harry had expected not to se her attempt for days. He heard Damien compliment her as they went upstairs, and when she said "Harry's been teaching me, and he's as good a teacher as seeker." the boy had replied that he could teach her some things they used in America that he said "might not have crossed the Atlantic yet." Fortunately Ron heard this first and he snorted, and answered for Hermione.

"Don't think there's much you can show Harry," he said. "He's been seeker since his first year, youngest seeker in a hundred years. Besides, quidditch originated right here in England. You may have some different names for things, but I'll bet you a bag of Bertie Bott's Beans what you have isn't that much different."

'So we all know where we stand now," Harry thought, also realizing it was probably the first time Hermione had allowed Ron to reply to something directed to her, without a huge argument ensuing. She had an odd look on her face, but she didn't seem inclined to jump into the conversation.

"C'mon, Herm," he said, pulling her down the hall."I think you may need some help getting those knees skin colored again. We may have to use a Scouring Spell." He looked once over his shoulder, to see Ron and Damien giving each other long, level looks, then simultaneously turning and walking away without a word.

"Should be an interesting year at Hogwarts," he said, getting to his knees in front of Hermione, and beginning to roughly scrub her knees. "Ron and Damien have already looked as if they'd like to hex each other. Then you add in Adrian and Draco, hopefully playing against each other. Yeah, we oughta have a lot of excitement before long."

"But...... we have O.W.L.S. this year!" Hermione wailed. "You and Ron had better think about making study schedules, instead of who's fighting who. And by the way, you don't have to take my skin off and those are Mrs. Weasley's newest guest towels. Good thing she has such a soft spot for you, anyone else would probably wind up doing all the laundry, the Muggle way, before we go back to school."

Harry stood sheepishly, holding the once white and lace trimmed, now green and brown towel in his hand, and realized he'd better listen to Hermione. He sure didn't want to wind up with only a few O.W.L.S. Besides the idea of how disappointed Hermione would be, he was sure this was just the type thing Rita Skeeter would love to find out about. Hermione had now washed her hands and face, and turned to kiss him before going out the door to head for Ginny's room. "Wear your blue shirt, and kahkis?" she asked, looking at him in that way she had, of making him feel like a hero. "You look so great in them."

Harry nodded, and hugged her, then grinned as he began to wash up. "You're hopeless!" he said to his reflection in the mirror. "She's got ya right where she wants you."

"There are worse places to be, dearie!" the mirror replied, and he had to nod in agreement.

____________________________

Several days had passed since Chris and Ivy had left the Burrow, and things had settled into a sort of routine. Harry still didn't feel Damien was a person who'd ever be a close friend, but he had tried to keep those feelings to himself. As Hermione had mentioned, they didn't need to start the year with bad feelings, when the teachers surely planned, more than ever, to work them into shadows of themselves.

Besides, they had been having too much fun, and those warning feelings had sort of faded....maybe he had just been acting like a younger version of Mad Eye Moody, with all that constant vigilance stuff. Not that he wasn't watching, but this was a last chance for some fun before summer ended.

Today promised to be especially fun, since they planned to go to the river not far from the Burrow to swim and picnic. Mr. Weasley planned to take the day off from the Ministry, and for once, Mrs. Weasley had been persuaded to leave her kitchen behind. She had been in a flurry of sailing pots, rolling pins and other kitchen items the day before but the picnic baskets were packed, and Harry thought he recognized some of the camping equipment they had taken to the World Cup the year before. He wondered whether Mr. Weasley would have the same trouble with matches.

Harry and Ron came down the back stairs early that morning, to hear Percy's voice, and he sounded even more lofty and demanding than ever. As they came into the kitchen, he was saying, in a voice that sounded as if he were speaking to a small, not very bright child, "The Clearwaters are out of the country now, in Africa for some meeting. I told them we would manage to have everything ready."

"You told them what?" shrieked Mrs. Weasley, sinking down in a kitchen chair and looking pale. "Percy, we've never had a wedding here! And Penny won't care to have a thrown together wedding!"

"I've told you Mother, the Ministry has positions for a married couple in Italy, and the job won't wait. It could put us years further in our careers, if we're able to go."

"We can manage a small celebration, Percy, but today is your mother's day out of the house, I'm not working and we're spending the day with your brothers and sister, before they go back to school." Harry had rarely seen Mr. Weasley look so determined, but perhaps they were all thinking of storing good memories for the possible dark days ahead.

"You go ahead and owl Penny to come here," Mr. Weasley continued. "We can talk about this more while we're at the river."

Percy looked as if he was about to protest, but thought better of it. He disapparated, and Ron snickered. "Still has to show off, apparating upstairs, he's been doing it for a year! " He turned to his parents and said, "You'd better ask Percy who he expects to pay for this. He probably plans the most expensive everything, to go with their new, important positions. And the bride is supposed to pay."

"They'll have to be satisfied with what we can do," Molly said firmly. "Now, let's get everyone up, so we can start our day."

"Has she finally wised up about him?" Ron asked, as they went back upstairs to wake the others.

__________________

By noon, they were all wet and exhausted, but Harry thought he had rarely had that much fun in his life. Fred and George had tied ropes into the trees that hung over the river, and Mr. Weasley had enchanted the ropes to swing in fast spirals to drop them far out into the water. He and Hermione had gone on the ropes together, and they had screamed until they were hoarse, but he had enjoyed holding her as they soared through the air, and plunged into the deep water.

Hermione's hair had curled into tiny ringlets with the water and he thought he had never seen her look so cute, as she shook the water from her eyes and hair. Her swimsuit was not exactly as he pictured in the dream, but he thought it might be even better. It was a dark blue, with tiny flowers of all shades of turquoise and blue, and was cut high on her legs, making them look even longer than he'd thought possible. He saw she had a tiny silver and turquoise dot at her belly button, and the top was cut straight across with tiny straps on her shoulders. When he had seen her from the back, for a moment it looked as if the suit had no top, since all that showed from the back were thin straps across her back that were almost invisble. He hadn't been sure which way to run at first, but when she turned around, he was amazed that she looked covered enough even to suit Mrs. Weasley.

He guessed his imagination was getting too strong for his (and her) good. But how had Hermione, their best friend, turned into this pretty witch with curves in all the right places? He was glad Danielle was meeting them in Diagon Alley in a few days, because he could see Ron was thinking the same thing about Hermione, though he was attempting to hide it.

Over on the banks of the river, Harry could see Mr. Weasley with Damien beside him. They were working on starting a fire, but Damien seemed to be showing Mr. Weasley something that he hadn't seen before, since he seemed to be shaking his head in astonishment.

"Let's go over and see what Mr.Weasley is so surprised by," he told Hermione as they climbed out of the water for the tenth time. She looked disappointed, but he hugged her, and added, "Not for long, we can go right back." Then he lowered his voice and whispered, "I'm not finished holding you in the air and kissing under water is,um, interesting."

Hermione brightened up immediately, and said, "You go ahead, I'm going to put on some shorts."

He nodded and went on, feeling glad, but kind of like a jerk for feeling that way, since Hermione was going to look more covered when they were with Damien.

"So, what're you two doing?" he asked, squatting beside them. He saw several of the sticks had a charred look, but he saw no fire.

"Damien has been showing me a spell he learned in America," Mr. Weasley answered excitedly. "He can make that eckeltricity muggles use, without any plugs."

Damien, Harry noticed, didn't look especially pleased that he'd shown an interest, though he saw what he couldn't help thinking of as the other boy's "mask" slide over his face. "Oh, it's not so much," he said. "And it doesn't always work, but I've attempted it a few times."

"Interesting that it happened to work well when you showed it to Mr. Weasley," Hermione said, standing behind him, and leaning over to examine the charred sticks. "I'm rather good at fires, myself, but I'd never considered electricity. I'm part muggle you know, grew up thinking I was completely muggle born, but it turns out my mom is a witch as well."

'Why was Hermione being so friendly?' Harry wondered, and was not reassured with Damien's reply.

"I know," the American wizard said, casually. "I've heard of your mom. If you like I can show you how to do this...sometime."

"You've heard of my mom?" Hermione asked, Harry was sure he hadn't imagined the trace of discomfort in her voice. "That seems impossible. She only re- entered the magical world this summer. And......"

As she was about to continue, Harry leaned back and not so gently pinched Hermione's leg. Fortunately, being the smartest witch in her year, she caught on quickly, and instead said. "Maybe, sometime, sure."

"I live in New York City, news travels faster there than anyplace in the world. We don't even use the Wizard's Wireless, it's completely WizNet there." Damien replied, looking smug. Harry wanted to say, "So what?", but seeing the look of excitement on Mr. Weasley's face, he thought, perhaps he, Ron and Hermione should find out more about the WizNet. And break up this little session.

"I think Mrs. Weasley might need us," Harry said, standing up and taking Hermione's hand. "She's starting to unpack, let's go help her, Hermione."

"Heavens, I've left her over there alone with Percy and Penny!" Mr. Weasley said with a guilty look. "Thanks, Harry. Yes, let's help her."

As the three of them walked over to the picnic and Mrs. Weasley, Penny and Percy, Harry saw Damien disappear into the woods. He didn't know what bothered him more, that the guy seemed to be sneaking off or that he seemed to think he was above helping. Fortunately, his mind was soon distracted by Hermione telling Mrs. Weasley that she and Harry would go up to the spring they had passed on the way, and get some fresh water. Ah, alone with her at last! As nice as it had been, visiting Ron's family, there hadn't been much time alone for them.

As they walked into the woods, Percy could be heard speaking in a loud, insistent voice, and judging by the looks on Fred and George's faces, they were making wedding plans too, the exact opposites of what Percy would want.

WHAT could dear, innocent Fred and George be planning? Does Percy get his way? Come back for the next chapter, okay?