Ready Or Not (Here I Come!)

"Ready or Not, Here I Come"

Chapter Four "A Not - So - Typical Weekend"

Harry woke to find someone shaking his shoulder, and brilliant sunshine flowing into the dorm. He swatted at the hand that was shaking him, and muttered "Go 'way, iss Sa'rday!' but the hand shook him more persistently.

"Harry, wake up!" hissed a voice that Harry recognized through a cloud of sleep as Adrian's "We're meeting the girls on the quidditch field, and they were going to bring breakfast. Come on, before the others wake up!"

Realizing Adrian wasn't going away, and with the promise of an outdoor breakfast with Hermione, Harry shoved back his coverlet, and felt it slide to the floor. The coverlet had proved to be just as comfortable as he'd expected it to be when he'd found it on his bed, in Paris, the morning he'd turned fifteen. Of course, at that time, Hermione had not only been on his mind, she'd been right there in the room, looking tousled from sleep but glowing with excitement. He thought she had been even more excited about celebrating his birthday the way a birthday should be celebrated, than he had been. From the moment he'd walked into the Grangers' house with Uncle Vernon, right after arriving back for summer holidays, the whole summer had been a gift and more like a dream come true.

Still, things certainly weren't bad this year, so far anyway. Classes were demanding, and Snape had reverted to his previous unpleasantness, though Harry often felt it was just because the potions professor didn't want anyone to notice any changes in his attitude. When no one was looking, he could have sworn Snape had looked at him more questioningly than venomously. He'd even nodded to Snape once, almost automatically, and Snape had almost smiled as he nodded in return. 'What did THAT mean,' he'd wondered.

But it was quidditch practice that was leaving him exhausted, and yet exhilarated. As Ivy had mentioned, they'd started practice much earlier than in previous years, and a good thing too! Everyone was out of practice, and Ivy and Madame Hooch seemed to be attempting to outdo one another, urging them to attempt more complex plays.

A new captain had been chosen, and everyone on the team seemed comfortable with Angelina Johnson as their leader. She was an excellent player, had a cool head, and combined humor with encouragement in a way that, great captain and good friend that he'd always been, Oliver Wood hadn't done. She also put the responsibility for good practices right where it should be, squarely on the shoulders of the team. No ranting, no complex diagrams or pre dawn practices.

No, this wasn't an "official" practice, but he'd agreed to help Adrian out. The position of keeper had yet to be decided on. The choice had been narrowed to Adrian and Seamus, and Harry groaned inwardly, every time he thought of having to help decide between the two. He, Fred and George, and the girls had, in fairness to both boys, alternated doing extra practices with each, so that they'd have a fair chance. Today though, everyone was off to Hogsmeade, but Adrian had asked Harry to spend part of the morning with him. It had been impossible to refuse, especially after Hermione and Ginny said they'd get breakfast from the house elves, and meet them on the field.

Harry hadn't told Hermione, or anyone else, but he had done some exploring on his own, and had a surprise for Hermione. He only hoped he'd be showing it to only Hermione.
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'Where was he," wondered Hermione for at least the third time. She looked at her watch, a silver one with a star hanging from the edge of its face. Harry had given her the watch, along with a dozen roses with the longest stems she'd ever seen in her life. It wasn't the first time Hermione had received flowers, but the ones Harry had given her were, well, they stood out as something special. She'd wondered why he'd given her something as impersonal as a watch, until she noticed a few things.

First the star - on one side it was a deep cinnamon brown that seemed to glow from inside. When It was flipped over, the star shone with the green intensity of Harry's eyes, and often it even winked at her. The card had read, simply, "To match the stars in our eyes". And if that weren't enough, the watch was no ordinary muggle one. Like the clock she'd seen at the Burrow, this one had places marked all around it, and the names of the people closest to her, at this point in her life. The watch was much more crowded than it would have been last year, she thought happily, now including not only her parents, Ron and Harry, but Ginny, Danielle and Adrian.

Impatiently, she looked down again and saw that the name "Harry" had finally jumped from "barely moving" to "leaving the castle" and she saw Adrian's name had also changed. Looking over at Ginny, she saw a similar look of relief, and, not for the first time, wondered what the youngest Weasleys would do when this year was over. Ginny and Adrian made no secret of the enjoyment they found in each other's company, though privately she wondered whether she could have put aside Adrian's striking resemblance to Draco Malfoy, if she'd been in Ginny's place.

Thankfully, this wasn't something she had to consider, Hermione thought, as she saw the two boys loping across the grounds to join them at the edge of the quidditch field. She knew her face had lit up at the sight of the wiry, dark haired boy who was now closer to her than she'd ever dared to hope. His face, when he saw her, lit up too, making Hermione's heart do that now familiar, but never less than thrilling, flip flop. He sank down beside her, gave her shoulders a quick squeeze, and whispered quickly in her ear, "Morning, sweetness." Hermione could feel her face flush and couldn't help moving closer to Harry as she handed him a covered mug of pumpkin juice. He had no objections, obviously, and he and Hermione sat quietly, sharing a plate of toast and sausages, fruit and fried tomatoes, not speaking much, but enjoying each other's closeness in the chill early morning air. Ginny and Adrian sat slightly apart, their backs toward Harry and Hermione, seeming to feel just as content to eat and enjoy the company and the beauty of the morning.

When they'd devoured all that was on the plate, refilled it and eaten that as well, Harry stretched then gave Hermione a much bigger, harder hug, one that toppled her backwards, and left her looking up at her grinning friend, wondering what he'd do next. "What" turned out to be a kiss that was playful, but also made her glad she wasn't the one about to jump on a broom and practice quidditch maneuvers!

"Glad you made peace with the house elves, Hermione. Looks as if they gave you half the kitchen to bring out!" Harry said, surveying all the containers, the huge picnic basket and the blanket and cushions Hermione and Ginny had brought out.

"All she had to do was walk into the kitchen and they were rushing up to us, bowing and squeaking, 'Mr. Harry Potter's special friend,' in these reverent voices!" they heard Ginny's muffled voice say. She moved slightly away from where she'd had her head on Adrian's shoulder, and continued. "Then, she says she wants to surprise you with an outdoor breakfast! I thought we were going to have to run then. They wanted to bring out chairs and tables, candle and a tent."

"Yes, and it wasn't any better when you said we really wanted more of a private breakfast, Ginny," Hermione added. "All that whispering behind their hands, and giggling. I almost gave up the idea and ran!"

"Glad you didn't!" Adrian laughed, rubbing his stomach and then Ginny's cheek. "Somehow I expect we'll have a better session with full stomachs. If we don't sink like rocks, that is." He hugged Ginny and got to his feet, it was easy to see with mixed feelings. "Well, shall we start? This is one of those Hogsmeade weekends, you know, and Ginette and I are going to fly there, after our practice."

Hermione looked at Harry with a question in her eyes, but he shook his head. She felt a moment of shock, that he didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with her, but it was gone just as quickly when he came very close and whispered, "Maybe later, Got a surprise for you first. And no guessing!" Then he leapt on his Firebolt and streaked after Adrian, so quickly he was no more than a blur.

Hermione settled back against the huge picnic basket, pulled the rose and blue blanket closer around herself and sighed happily. Ginny was now lying on her side, watching Harry and Adrian in the air. Harry was playing the part of a chaser, and even though she was no expert, Hermione could tell Harry would have been an excellent chaser, if he hadn't become the youngest seeker at Hogwarts in a century.

"His dad was a chaser, wasn't he?" Ginny asked, not taking her eyes from the air. "And what's with the sigh? You two joining us in Hogsmeade or not?"

" I.. I don't know. Harry says he has a surprise for me. I can't imagine what though. Should I be eager, or tell him I'd rather go to Hogsmeade?"

Ginny now turned to stare at Hermione disbelievingly." Hermione Ann Granger, have you lost all of that huge brain?" She shook her bright red head in wonder. 'Do you know how many girls here at Hogwarts would give their best dress robes and all their jewelry and makeup to hear Harry Potter say he has a surprise for them. Until this year, I'd have been one of them. But no, he doesn't even notice any of the rest of us."

"Of course he does, Ginny!" Hermione said, feeling herself blush again. "I heard him telling you the other day that your freckles were really fading. And he complimented Pavarti on that dragonfly pin she was wearing on Tuesday!"

"My freckles are fading? What a compliment. He might just as well have congratulated me on not sticking my elbow in the butter when he sits down near me, anymore. And that dragonfly nearly put the poor guy's eye out. He had to say something when he ducked, Pavarti might have stuck it in his ear, otherwise. No, Harry Potter has only one witch on his mind, and everyone at Hogwarts knows it's you, Hermione. Just the way we knew he had that crush on Cho last year. But now, instead of stammering, and getting all red, both of you look so right. Even when you're being all bossy, or he gets that funny, sort of gloomy look on his face. As soon as you speak to each other, it's like watching the sun come out." Ginny laughed sheepishly. "Not that I'm at all unhappy with Adrian, he's everything I like in a guy, and it's sooo much fun, watching Draco's sneer when Adrian hugs me, a lowly Weasley! But you and Harry are different , Hermione. You both know it and so does everyone else."

There was no way Hermione could have argued with anything Ginny said, even if she'd wanted to, which she most assuredly didn't. So she laughed, a bit sheepishly herself and turned the conversation to guessing who had the best chance for filling the vacant Gryffindor keeper position. She snuggled down contentedly, as Ginny began to explain the strengths and weaknesses of Adrian and Seamus, just as she'd known Ginny would. She hadn't been raised in a house full of quidditch loving brothers without forming some very firm opinions of her own. This left Hermione free to wonder, in spite of Harry's admonishment of "no guessing", what in the wizarding world his surprise could be. A small smile played with the corners of her lips as she told herself it had been a very long time since any surprise from Harry had been anything but very, very pleasant.

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It had been a great practice, thought Harry, as he watched Ginny and Adrian cross the castle grounds. There was no way to know how the tryouts would go, but Adrian did have the advantage of having played for his house at Beauxbatons. And Ginny was sure cheering him on. He grinned as he remembered the crush Ginny'd had on him the first few years they knew each other. He wondered whether she'd be sending Adrian musical cards too, as she'd done with him. Maybe a warning wouldn't be such a bad idea!

But now he and Hermione had some exploring to do....

"So where are you taking me, Harry?" she asked, as they walked along the edge of the forest, swinging hands. "We aren't going into the forest, are we? This is reminding me a bit of the night we freed Sirius, except that it's not late at night. Remember how we were walking along the edge. I think I almost pinched your arm off that night!"

Harry chuckled and ran his fingers through hers tenderly. "I wasn't sensible enough to let you hold on to my hand instead. Although if I had, it could have been the end of my career as a seeker. Know what I think about sometimes? The time in the broom closet, when you threw the chain to the Time Turner over us both. Did you know I had some funny feelings then we stood that close together? I mean, I did wonder what was going on, but.. I'd never been that close to you before. You were all warm and soft, and you had that same sort of sweet but not too sweet smell that you have now. It isn't perfume is it? It's just you."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but no, it isn't perfume. Lots of people are allergic to perfume, including my dad." She looked hard at him, then sighed. "So, if you felt that way, why did you treat me like "good old Hermione" for the next year. You never looked all strange around me, the way you did around Cho. I know she's a lot prettier than me, but...."

"Stop," Harry said firmly, putting both hands on her shoulders and looking deep into her eyes. "How could I have treated you any differently, right under Ron's nose. You know he thought you'd wind up with him, for as far back as I can remember. I'm not a smooth guy, Hermione. Now that I think about it, I reckon I thought I liked Cho because I didn't know anything about her. D'you know how many times you've laughed in my face? Think I was going to risk that?"

"And Cho didn't laugh, did she?" Hermione asked, feeling unsure about whether she wanted to hear his answer.

"No, she never laughed. She just looked at me sort of like I was an animal caught in a trap, but she didn't know how to let me out. At least she did when I asked her to go to the Yule Ball," Harry couldn't help a grimace of embarrassment, even now, nearly a year later. What a prat he'd made of himself! He looked at Hermione, standing by him with a look of uncertainly on her face.

"Come on Hermione, don't look that way! I'm "caught" now, but it's not in any trap! I woke up in time to realize who's the most important person to me, all I had to do was look beside me, you've been right there for years!"

She shrugged her shoulders and sighed, "Yeah, dependable Hermione, that's me."

"I didn't think so for a while there! I was sure you'd be off to Bulgaria this summer, and who knew how you'd feel when you came back." Even now, Harry could remember the feelings he'd had when Chris told him Hermione was possibly going to visit Viktor Krum. "Fred and George helped me out then and they have again, though they don't really know it. Come on."

He pulled her along and they went a little ways into the woods, suddenly coming up on what looked like a lean-to for someone's tools. Hermione still had an uncertain look on her face, but this time it was more of a "Have you lost your mind?" look, since Harry was standing there, looking pleased and as proud as if he'd just brought her to some new castle.

"I know, it doesn't look really impressive," he said. "But just wait..." He pulled out his wand and tapped the edge of the wooden hut. When he did, a door of sorts appeared, and he pulled Hermione through it. Her eyes opened in surprise, since there were no tools and the inside was nothing like she expected. Instead there was a large sofa, several comfortable looking chairs and ottomans, as well as a table and two chairs in front of a shelf. Hermione could see from where she was. that it was filled with copies of all their textbooks as well as a set of magical reference books and a brand new copy of Hogwarts: A History. There appeared to be a section on quidditch and even a few cookbooks. When Harry saw her eyes on them, he grinned. "I thought we might want to learn a little cooking together. There's sort of a kitchen And look , a fireplace and a bathroom too"

"W-what is this, Harry? Are you moving here? I thought you liked living in the dorm with your friends!" She looked bewildered, but then dawning comprehension appeared on her face. "This is for us? Harry, I know you're a great wizard, but how did you manage all this?"

He looked smug, as he pulled out the Marauders Map and unrolled it on the table. As usual, the lines of ink appeared on the map, and they could see themselves, small red figures, standing in the.....Hermione didn't know what to call it now!

"I really don't know all that much, Hermione. I never saw it before! Yesterday, I was showing the map to Adrian and there it was! Sort of like the knuts box, don't you think? " He stepped closer, and slid an arm around her, "Almost as if somehow the map, or its makers saw us out on he lawn last night, and knew this warm weather wasn't going to be around long! Next thing we know, here's a fully stocked cottage!"

Hermione couldn't help a laugh at Harry's hopeful face. "Oh, I don't know... more likely the map makers realized we needed more study time, with the OWLS coming up. Look at all those books and the table's perfect and...."

Whatever other comments Hermione had were lost as Harry's mouth covered hers and somehow they found themselves on the large and comfortable sofa. Not being people to rush things, quite a few moments passed before they both returned to an upright position, and Harry said, "Now, about that trip to Hogsmeade..." Somehow that sentence didn't get finished either.

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It was early afternoon when Harry and Hermione made an appearance in Hogsmeade. Dani and Ron, along with Neville and Dean Thomas, were sprawled on a blanket in the grassy area in the middle of the village. As they had expected, there was a great deal of teasing and questioning about where they had been all this time, but since neither Harry nor Hermione was giving up a thing, the talk soon turned to other things.

"You'll never guess what we saw," exclaimed Neville. "Or I should say 'who'. That American guy who was at your party in Paris was in the Three Broomsticks with Cho Chang and some of the other girls from Ravenclaw. They were giggling all over the place, and he had his arm around Cho and another girl. Then Draco Malfoy came along and joined them. I never saw him without those really big guys, what are their names?"

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Danielle exchanged looks, but they were careful to act as if they weren't surprised. Ron mentioned that Damien had tried unsuccessfully to get Hermione's attention during the time he was at the Burrow.

"Mum would be furious if she knew a guest at our house had become friends with Lucius Malfoy's son!" They all nodded knowing this was certainly true, but the talk soon drifted to other subjects. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dani decided to go down for a look at the Shrieking Shack.

"We haven't been there, not this close, since we were there with Sirius, Remus and Snape," Ron remarked as he and Dani walked ahead of Harry and Hermione. He looked hesitantly at Harry, and said in a different tone of voice, "And Wormtail and Snape, of course. Harry, you sure you want to go there?"

"Sure," replied Harry. "There's nothing much in there except some old furniture and a lot of dust, as far as we know. Although things do have a way of changing around here." He looked meaningfully at Hermione, and she laughed but her cheeks still got pinker, he was glad to see. He hoped Hermione never changed in that way, showing her emotions so easily. "Come on, let's look in some of those windows."

They moved closer, to the house, and Harry studied the windows. They had actually only seen the rooms on the bottom floor. He remembered the dusty, broken furniture and peeling wallpaper, and couldn't suppress a slight shudder at the memory. Things could have turned out so differently if he hadn't been so reluctant to let Remus and Sirius do any harm to Peter Pettigrew. Now that it was too late, he realized Sirius had had just as much right to make the decision as himself. After all, his godfather had been betrayed by Wormtail, lost his best friends and the chance to fulfill his promise to Lily and James, to care for their son. Besides the loss of his good name and health for so long.

Danielle, Ron and Hermione had stopped beside him, and he turned to Hermione.

"I'm at least looking through the windows. Coming with me?"

"Of course I am," she answered. "I've followed you to far worse places in the past. Let's go." When they were a bit past Ron and Dani, she whispered, "I wasn't talking about the visit to "our" cottage, Harry."

He turned to grin at her, and replied, "You'll never be sorry about that. You'll just get gladder, I hope." They were at the windows now, and he saw with disgust that the windows were really too dirty to see through. Hermione came through as usual with a Clearing Charm, and they peered through. "Look! Over there in that corner, is that a snake's skin?"

"If it is, that's one huge snake!" murmured Hermione, her eyes widening. "But I guess it's nothing compared to the one you and Ron saw in the Chamber." She clutched his arm in a way that reminded him of the Hermione of the past, when she had almost cut off the blood flow.

"Hey, you trying to take off my arm? It's not so scary here!"

She laughed sheepishly and let go of his arm. "No, it's just that every time I think what might have happened to you and Ron, and Ginny, I want to hold on to you. So where do you think the snake that shed it's skin might be now? And I see some newspapers, and some cans and bottles. Whoever was here certainly didn't care about neatness. There could be rats in there."

"Hermione, I've got to go in there. If I'm right, there's been a rat in there, all right. A rat with a missing toe!" Harry turned and motioned for Ron and Dani to join them near the window.

"I've got to go in there," he told them all. "If I'm right, Wormtail, Voldemort and that snake, Nagini have been here.... if I could prove that, Sirius could be freed, even before Monsieur Maas and Dani's dad come for the meeting with the Ministry. Fudge would have to take things seriously then!"

"And they could still be in there, Harry. This could be another one of You Know Who's traps, and you'd be walking right into it." Ron had gone a bit pale under his freckles, and Harry wasn't sure it was because he was alarmed, or because he'd been eating too many of the sweets he and Dani had from Honeydukes. His best friend had a point, but he couldn't just walk away, wondering what was or had been in there. Hermione had a look on her face that was impossible to read. This was unusual, but he thought it was because she was at war with herself.

"So, what do you think, Hermione? Coming in with me?"