Hogwarts, Hormones And Everything Else

~ Chapter Three - Ivy and Hermione's Surprise ~


Harry woke to the sound of high pitched voices, and scraping sounds. He looked across at Ron, and saw that he was also awake and looked just as startled and apprehensive.

"Well, the "big day" is here, and sounds like it's going to be worse than any of us expected," Ron said with a groan, sitting up and stretching.

" Yeah," replied Harry. "Makes you kinda never want to get married, doesn't it? But guess we might as well go on down and help. I have to admit, I kind of don't want to miss anything, even if we do have to follow Percy's "orders". Your mom and dad have been so.... cool about the whole wedding. I mean your mom's yelled a lot, but she isn't treating Percy like Mr. Perfect anymore, is she?"

"True," said Ron with a wide smirk. "The whole mess has almost been worth it, seeing my family tell Percy how it's going to be. But as for getting married, it'll be different for us Harry. We won't be marrying some stuck up witch with nothing but work and her career on her mind. Even Hermione's changed. I'm not saying she'll marry either of us, but think about it... compared to Penny, Hermione is the Number One Party Girl of the magical world."

"And you don't know half of it," Harry said, before he thought, then felt his face redden. "Err, I mean, she's .... been interested in something besides books recently."

"Never mind, I've got an imagination," answered Ron, as he headed for the door. "You might want to watch that talking in your sleep when we get back to school though. You might shock Neville, and have Seamus and Dean setting up a recorder." Harry chuckled as Ron hurried out the door, ducking to avoid the pillow Harry had thrown hard after him.

Once they reached the kitchen, dining room and living room, it was hard to decide whether things were better or worse than they had expected. Percy was bellowing about the flowers not looking the way he'd expected, and there were so many things cooking in the kitchen, Pots and pans were pushing each other around the stove, as if they were elbowing each other for space. A huge cake sat in the corner, decorated with candy fairies and bright yellow sunflowers.

"We couldn't get sunflowers, Percy," Mr. Weasley was saying, wearily, and obviously repeating himself. "The daisies will have to do, you know we told you not to expect perfection."

At this moment, the door burst open and Hermione, Penny and Molly flowed out. Ginny followed by a few paces, rubbing her eyes and looking sleepy and confused.

"Oh, Percy, I've had an owl from Mom. She's found a way for you and Penny to have your sunflowers- and a lot more, if you don't mind a few other changes. How would you like to be married in Italy, surrounded by sunflowers?"

Now Harry felt like rubbing his eyes! What was Hermione talking about? She noticed his bewildered look and came to stand beside him before she continued. "Look, I'm really sorry I didn't mention this before, but I had no idea it would work out, so it seemed silly to even mention it. But now...well, you know my parents always go abroad for holidays? Mom and I remembered we had visited a place in Italy called Le Mandorelle.It is between Tuscany and Umbria, not far from Rome and Florence and nearby there are miles of sunflower fields. There's a beautiful spot that's open with a view of sunflowers, vineyards and right beside the pool. It could be a beautiful wedding spot."

"It sounds wonderful, Hermione," Mrs. Weasley said. "But it would be more than we could manage, I'm afraid. "

Harry felt, for the first time, a bit angry with Hermione and Ivy. They knew the Weasleys couldn't afford that type wedding! And now, Percy would be angry and dissatisfiied with anything his family tried to do.

"Oh, no, that's the best part. You see, Mom really contacted the place to try and have some sunflowers sent here, as a gift. When she called Le Mandorelle, she found that it had changed owners, a couple from the United States bought the place. But they wanted to take a trip back home, they are from a place called Hilton Head. They were going to shut down the inn, but they were worried about leaving the place, and all the food their garden produces. So... you know how persuasive Mom can be. It wasn't long before the owners thought it was their idea that she bring over a group, just to sort of look after the place. We can all go for the wedding, then Penny and Percy can have the place alone for their wedding trip. You can easily do lots of sightseeing from there."

Everyone began talking excitedly then, and in the confusion of the moment, Harry pulled Hermione back into the house and kissed her very thoroughly. How could he have doubted her. When they stopped at last, both were smiling hugely.

"You were getting angry, Harry, I could see that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. It all happened so fast, and, well, you haven't had that many good surprises."

"I should have trusted you. You ought to be angry with me. When, since we were eleven, have you done anything I couldn't trust." He was almost afraid to look at her as he said this. Maybe she would realize he was right and get angry. But Hermione only laughed.

"I'll save it for later," she said. "And think of a way you can make it up to me. Now, I think we'd better listen to Mr. Weasley. He's finished reading Mom's letter."
They stepped out the door, and Mrs. Weasley was roaring for them all to be quiet. When they finally were, comparatively at least, Mr. Weasley began to speak.

"All right, we need to get organized. Ivy and Dumbledore have arranged portkeys to get everyone to Italy, and are setting up wards to hide the place from muggles while we're there. Penny and Percy, if you're happy with this, you need to owl Penny's family, and any of your friends, so that the portkeys can be set up for them. And can someone tell me what golf is? Chris says there's a superior course in Perugla. He wants to take me and anyone else who'd like to try it."

Harry and Hermione laughed. It was hard to imagine Mr. Weasley playing golf, but they knew, as Chris did, how fascinated he was with anything having to do with muggles. Hermione gave a brief description, at which Fred and George declared they had some ideas for livening up that game. Mrs. Weasley had one more announcement before they went their separate ways though.

"We'll be going right to Diagon Alley ,the day after we come back from Italy. Everyone be sure you know where your list of supplies and things you need can be found!"

They all scattered then to the various tasks, and Harry saw Fred and George talking to Lee and Damien. He walked over and found that the visitors were preparing to leave. He couldn't help feeling glad, at least to see Damien leave. It would be different if Lee had come by himself.

He saw that Ron and Ginny had surrounded Hermione and he had a pretty good idea that they were asking if Ivy could get Danielle and Adrian to Italy too. He sighed happily. Once again life was spinning in greased grooves in the world he was happy to be part of. Even if this year did bring darker times, this had been a summer to make up for the miserable ones of the past.
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" 'Twas the night after the wedding, and all through the house, not a Weasley was stirring, not even the ghoul in the attic."

The Weasley family, minus Charlie, Bill and the newly maried Percy, but including Harry and Hermione, had arrived back at the Burrow after sundown, happy but extremely tired. They all agreed that it didn't seem possible they had been picnicking by the river two days before! Since the plans were to meet Danielle and Adrian along with Danielle's family, in Diagon Alley the next day, no one had argued when Mrs. Weasley shooed them all up to bed. They heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley come up soon after, and soon things were fairly quiet at the Burrow, except for the occasional small explosion from the twins' room and a muffled giggle from Ginny's room, where she and Hermione were, no doubt, reviewing the events of the day.

Harry was still amazed everything had gone so smoothly.

By the time they arrived by portkey, Ivy and Molly had been there for awhile. The food had been transported, added to, and Ivy had brought in loads of the huge sunflowers Penny and Percy had their hearts set on. The morning of the wedding, some of those sunflowers had been magicked into the trees surrounding the pool and garden area where the wedding would take place.

Fred and George had amused themselves at Percy's expense in various ways, one being to have the flowers droop from the trees when Percy came near, and begin chanting "Pompous Percy, Former head boy- Bighead boy, do you take this similarly pompous witch to live in excruciating boredom with, until you both shall perish from it?" But since this only happened when Percy was alone, he'd had little success convincing his parents, Penny, Chris or Ivy the flowers were really talking. Harry, Ron, Fred and George had hidden in the various shrubs to watch Percy shaking his fist at the sunflowers he'd wanted so badly.

"Percy really got mad didn't he?" Harry whispered to Ron, who was lying in bed looking at a picture that had been taken of himself and Danielle. Ron had a big grin on his face, and Harry could see Danielle waving merrily to him, and occasionally blowing a kiss.

"Yeah," Ron replied, distractedly, but then remembering, he laughed aloud. " Fred and George really outdid themselves, didn't they? Percy was expecting the food to be trick food, but they didn't touch that. Probably knew Mum would turn them into horklumps or something. He was pretty surprised they didn't do something during the wedding."

Harry replied, "Your folks were too. I saw your mom giving them these nervous looks, as if she expected the whole place to turn into a huge fireworks show. And Percy spent more time watching the twins than he did looking at Penny. She got pretty irritated, you could tell."

"Not nearly as much as she did when those two veelas showed up to entertain, and Percy acted as if he didn't know he was at his own wedding!" Ron snorted, then turned pink as he remembered how he'd felt when he had been turned down by Fleur when he asked her to go to the Yule Ball. "Hey, Harry, d' you suppose there'll be another Yule Ball this year?"

"Probably not," Harry answered. "Considering the luck we usually have, since we've got people to invite this year, it'll turn out to be the regular Christmas feast and that'll be it. Besides, I'm hoping Sirius will be cleared by Christmas holidays, and we'll be in a house someplace. Or maybe with Hermione and her family."

"Maybe Danielle will invite me home with her this Christmas," Ron replied, in the distracted voice he'd used earlier.

Harry snorted, but said "Maybe so." as he turned on his side and tried to go to sleep, wishing Mrs. Weasley hadn't shooed them off to their bedrooms before he'd had a private moment with Hermione, and a goodnight kiss. She sure had looked pretty at the wedding..........

~ ~ ~ ~

Downstairs in Ginny's room, there had been a lot more muffled giggling. Adrian had kissed Ginny, her first real kiss, and she and Hermione were analyzing all aspects of the kiss, and discussing how everyone had looked and behaved. Hermione had worn a short salmon pink dress, covered by a shorter, almost transparent robe that was more like a cape. She had known she 'd made the right choice when she saw Harry's face light up as he saw her. He had commented that she looked like a really pretty flower from some magical garden, and had added regretfully that he'd sure miss seeing her legs, once they got back to school. She had promised to wear skirts under her robes more this year, and to fasten the clasp loosely.

"Do you think Adrian liked my dress and robe?" Ginny asked, though Hermione knew she was well aware that Adrian had been impressed. Ginny had worn a dress made of soft golds and browns, in a silky material, and her robe, like Hermione's had been short and so transparent as to almost seem not there. Her hair had darkened a bit over the summer, and was more bronze than bright red. Adrian's had not been the only eyes to notice Ginny that summer, but she didn't know that yet.

Hermione was idly flipping through a muggle magazine, when she gave a quickly stifled laugh and tossed the magazine into the trash can.

"What was that?" Ginny asked.

"Oh,the silliest thing!" Hermione giggled. "Some muggles seem to be making a movie about wizards and witches. They even look as if they tried to make it look like a school. The school didn't look so bad, and Harry is really rather nice looking. But the way they dressed the students was a hoot. As if any of us would go around in white shirts and ties, and robes that look like black bathrobes! It's getting harder and harder to remember I spent eleven whole years entirely in the muggle world. Harry and Ron would get a laugh from that though. And can you imagine Fred and George wearing starched shirts and ties?"

They both laughed at this, and turned back to a sleepier discussion of the wedding, and what they would do tomorrow in Diagon Alley.
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Further down the hall, Fred and George were going over plans for the next day in Diagon Alley, as well as discussing the Italian girls they'd met when they had sneaked down to the village the night before the wedding. It had been a busy couple of days, as far as spending time with far more experienced females, and George was grumbling a bit about having to go back to Hogwarts and girls their own age. Fred however was openly looking forward to seeing Angelina, and told George he'd better wake up and appreciate the girls they knew.

"Sure those Italian girls were fun, but do you suppose they can play quidditch? And I'll bet they'd run away screaming if they knew some of the pranks we've played. Nah, call me crazy, but I'll take Angelina anytime. Besides being pretty and a good sport, she flies better than any witch I've seen, possibly excepting Ivy. And she's always up for a prank."

George had to agree and said he'd show more appreciation of Katie in future. The twins turned to a sleepy discussion of the veela they had gotten to come to the wedding reception, with some help from Bill and Fleur. Before he had been dragged away, Percy had tried his best to convince the veela girls that Cornelius Fudge had assured him that he was sure to be the next Minister of Magic and that five professional quidditch teams had been trying to recruit him!

And in the last bedroom on the hall, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were wearily happy that the first of their children was happily married to the witch of his choice. Though they had never spoken the feeling aloud, each continued to hope Percy's ambition would not lead him to go against what they had tried to teach all their children. Unfortunately, neither felt as certain this would be the case as they would have wished.