Just Off the Platform

JUST OFF THE PLATFORM

"Come along; come along!" Mrs. Weasley called, "Taxis cost money!" Needing two of the Muggle contraptions, she'd had to round them up and start paying for them before collecting her brood. Spending money was NOT something Weasleys took lightly.

'Whatever is the matter with these children,' she thought, looking at them as they maneuvered their trolleys through the crowds at the station. Fred and George looked dazed, Ron looked confused and angry, and even Ginny looked upset. 'Maybe they're worried about Harry,' she thought. 'Poor boy; we'll have to do something for him soon. That awful uncle of his. . . .'

***

"Come on, boy!" Vernon Dursley commanded, "get that trunk of yours in the boot! We haven't got all day! And mind that ruddy owl doesn't upset that cage! No, boy, sit in the front. I'm not your chauffeur, you know!"

"Yes, Uncle Vernon," Harry muttered, a little confused. Harry had always had to sit in the back, behind the passenger seat. He did as he was told, however, and Vernon pulled out into the heavy traffic.

"Who was that girl, boy?"

"Girl?"

Vernon rolled his eyes. "Yes, girl! Bushy hair, the one that kissed you!"

"Oh, that's Hermione. She's. . . ."

"Your girl friend?"

"No, sir; she's just a very good friend," Harry said firmly. He'd had enough of that nonsense the past year.

"Oh," Vernon said, sounding a little disappointed. "Thought maybe you'd do SOMETHING normal for once. Her parents looked normal, too."

Confused, Harry could only respond, "Well, they're both dentists."

"Real dentists?" Vernon asked, surprise in his voice.

"Yes, sir; I think they have a private practice somewhere near Cambridge."

"Glad they aren't ALL weird," Vernon muttered.

'I wonder who was stranger,' Harry wondered silently, 'Hermione for kissing me or Uncle Vernon for commenting like that.' Ron and Ginny's reactions, however, were understandable. Harry fell into contemplating Ginny -- a safer subject than remembering the Third Task, or Hermione's kissing him.

***

"I thought you wrote you didn't like Harry," Hermione's father teased.

"He's my friend," Hermione answered, a bit bewildered. "Why?"

"Just a friendly peck, huh? My daughter, the femme fatale."

DAD!"

"Dear, don't tease," his wife answered. "It was obviously just a friendly kiss. And did you see that awful man picking Harry up?" She shuddered a little. "Either the man had a really bad day or he's just plain nasty."

"Nasty, from everything I've heard about him," Hermione answered. "Poor Harry's had a really bad week or so."

"Yes, you never wrote about the Third Task," her father reminded her. "What happened?"

"I think that should wait until we're home," Hermione said, worry in her voice. "We're going to have to talk."

Her parents exchanged a look, and brought the conversation around to safer topics.

***

Molly Weasley rode in the lead taxi, with Fred and George in the back. There was no way she was going to allow some poor Muggle taxi driver to be exposed alone to those two! Still, for once the twins were being quiet . . . too quiet. Molly glanced back. They were scribbling away with a pencil on some parchment. 'Something to do with those silly Wheezes no doubt!' she worried.

Of course, considering the attitudes of Cornelius Fudge towards the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the disappearance of Barty Crouch, not to mention the shock of learning Sirius Black was both innocent and known to her youngest son and his friends, Molly wasn't so sure she really wanted two more sons in the Ministry after all. Percy was still facing formal Inquiries, as if the situation was in any way his fault!

No, as long as Fudge remained Minister of Magic, Molly was in no hurry to have more children working in the Ministry. However, that did not mean she was about to let the boys spend their lives trying to start a joke shop. Her eyebrows went into a frown. What job could the two boys do. . . .

In the back seat, Fred and George were trying to figure out how to best use the 1000 galleons Harry had given them.

***

Narcissa Malfoy almost wrinkled her nose as she finally caught sight of her son and the two young thugs who were supposed to be working for him. The trio had obviously been well-hexed and then dumped off the train.

Holding her haughty expression, and repressing the sigh that nearly escaped her, Narcissa took out her wand and banished the hex marks on Draco. She hesitated a moment, and then did the same to Crabbe and Goyle.

She understood why Lucius was unable to fetch Draco and his subordinates as usual. That idiot, Fudge, needed cajoling. At the moment, there was a very thin line that Lucius and the others had to walk, and it was best that most of them weren't seen by the general wizarding population. Few had enough brains and bravado to carry them through the acting necessary at the moment to pretend nothing had changed. Lucius, of course, had both.

"Ennervate."

Draco opened his eyes, and after a moment, his eyes focused. "Mother!"

"Say nothing," she said softly. "Let me . . . awaken these two, and let's be off! You know how difficult it is to arrange to floo onto the platform. We do NOT want to miss our connections and have to leave through Muggle London!"

"But. . . ."

"Save any explanations for your Father." Her face hardened, "If you feel the need to explain anything, try to do so in such a way that you do not look too weak or foolish."

***

"Ginny?" The pair of siblings were nearly half-way home, and neither had spoken until now.

"Yeah?"

"You're . . . friendly with Hermione, right?"

"I guess." 'I thought I was, anyway,' she thought.

"Do you think . . . that she and Harry. . . ."

"I don't think so," Ginny said, doubt in her voice. "I think she was just . . . comforting him, and her hands were full. . . ."

"Oh."

'I hope that's all it was,' they both thought.

***

Harry looked up at #4 Privet Drive, and sighed. His thoughts kept coming back to the problem of Voldemort.

* Draco looked around the magnificent Entrance Hall of Malfoy Manor. Nothing had changed in this room for as long as he could remember. It was a cold room, in every respect.
* Ron and Ginny sat quietly as their taxi neared the Burrow. Each was still thinking about the kiss Hermione had given Harry.
* Hermione sat in the dentist chair, as her parents checked for poor dental care. Her mother was ranting about her adjusted teeth, but there was little Hermione could say with two dental mirrors in her mouth.

'It likely to be a long summer,' all five teens thought