Dear Diary

Dear Diary

By Heather Riddle

Chapter Two

Reconnecting through Disconnections

From that point on, Hermione and Ginny were inseparable. They'd go shopping for the morning, come home to make lunch for the men, then go back out shopping some more. They claimed that's how they connected the best. One time, when they were shopping for new robes, Ginny asked Hermione a question, "You like my brother, don't you?"

"You read me like a book, don't you?" Hermione smiled back.

"I believe that was called evading the question," Ginny taunted.

"Fine...I like your brother, yes," Hermione sighed. "But he's so good looking. So much different from school."

"Where you had a crush on Fred," Ginny said the unspoken words.

"Not Fred, George," Hermione corrected.

"Whatever. Too late now. Alicia snagged him."

"And Cho snagged Fred," Hermione smiled.

"Do you know what happened to Angelina Johnson?" Ginny asked curiously.

"No, but I hadn't seen her for years after I left," Hermione commented.

"Hmm..." Ginny said. A few minutes later the women paid for their purchases and headed back home to make supper for Ron, Harry, and Colin.

"Colin, I'm home!" Ginny called as she walked through the door. Hermione made a bee-line for the kitchen, insisting she'd make dinner, while Ginny went to the living room. Hermione heard her best friend scream, "CHO! FRED! GEORGE! ALICIA!"

"Hi-ya, Gin," George said playfully. "Sorry we couldn't make it to your wedding...on a little business, you see!"

"Yeah, I see," Ginny pretended to look sad, even though she completely understood why all three of her favorite brothers weren't at her wedding, "I see that you hate me."

"Nah, not 'cause we hate you, 'cause we hate Colin!" Fred exclaimed.

"Well, that's disconcerting," Colin joked.

"Dinner!" Hermione called from the kitchen. Hermione had a tendency to make way too much food for the amount of people she was cooking for, but this time it came in handy. Her food sufficed not only for herself, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Colin, but Fred, George, Cho, and Alicia. The family (and Harry and Hermione) sat down at the table and immediately began talking. Fred and George started to joke about their school days, and how they'd told Peeves to give Umbridge hell.

"Well, they certainly did," Colin and Ginny informed their elders, "especially after she left Hogwarts. Even Snape gave her hell. Sometimes, Dumbledore would 'accidentally' make a connection with her mind...you know his, 'special' powers. We'd taunt her. Dumbledore claimed that while we had the mind connection, we might as well make something of it. Goodness it was fun!"

"Hmm...sometimes I wish I was still back at Hogwarts," Hermione said wistfully.

"So Fred, George, Alicia, whatever happened to Angelina Johnson?" Hermione asked.

The laughing twins and their wives turned serious immediately. Cho took a breath and started to explain, "When Umbridge left, Angelina had a bit of unfinished business to settle with her. You know how Umbridge is in jail now? Well, Angelina put her there. Angelina went to put in a formal complaint to the Ministry, and Umbridge put an Unforgivable Curse on her, so she went to Azkaban."

"Oh goodness..." Ginny looked stunned.

"Yeah," Hermione said. "What curse was it, Cho? Was it...the Killing Curse?"

"No...cruciatus," Alicia put in, half crying, half being sarcastic and dry. "And she put it on Angie for so long that she nearly killed her! Angelina Johnson is in a rehab center in Saint Mungo's, and I'll get her out, I swear, if it kills me, I'll get her out of there!"

Fred and George both stared at the table, until Fred spoke, "If we'd been at Hogwarts, we could have gone with her and destroyed Umbridge. But we weren't. We quit school, and Angie has to pay now!"

George couldn't take it anymore. He got up and left the table.

"George! Don't leave," Alicia begged as she jogged after her sprinting husband.