Harry Potter and the Summer To Remember

    Well, Harry's thoughts were not meant to be kept to himself. Noticing the commotion in the kitchen as Harry arrived, Fred, George, Ron, and the rest of the Weasleys, not to mention Hermione, came in and saw Harry standing there, holding a useless leather boot, not to mention the handle of Hedwig's cage and dragging his trunk behind him. Harry gently put everything down.

     Mrs. Weasley said to him, "Harry, have Ron help you get your things to his room, ok?"

Ron helped Harry lug his trunk, as well as Hedwig's cage to his room, decorated with The Chudley Cannons as usual.

     "I am glad you made it," Ron said.

    "Me too," quipped Harry.

    The two best friends headed happily downstairs to be with the rest of the Weasley family as well as their best friend, Hermione.

    Hermione was busy chatting with Ginny, so Harry found Fred and George and took them aside. He told them about the joke that he pulled on Dudley. Harry described, "It was bloody brilliant, you two. He couldn't even scream for help. I had to run outside before I could even laugh."

    "We just created that one and tried it on Ginny first.” Fred said. “Boy was she ever angry when she came out of it!"

    "What is it called?" asked Harry.

     "It is called the Super Fast Weight Shifter," George answered.

    Ron interrupted by saying "Well, we better go find Hermione before she lets Ginny in on how seeing Vicky was".

    Ron and Harry left Fred and George to find Hermione. She was still in Ginny's room. They knocked, and Ron said through the door," Hermione, remember that Harry is here."

     "Oh ok see you two in a bit," Hermione answered back. This was very odd of Hermione, Harry thought, to not want to see him first thing. Harry could tell Ron was thinking the same. Suddenly, while they were both thinking this, Hermione ran out of Ginny's room, and shut the door. She saw Harry and immediately wrapped her arms around him. Ron looked agape at the two hugging, and thought "What?! You don't hug your best friend like that!" Harry, just as puzzled as ever, and actually not used to getting hugs, least of all this type of hug, just shrugged and returned it.

     Hermione began talking to Harry.

"Hi, I have missed you so very much! Did you know I didn't even go see Viktor?" After saying this, she finally ended the embrace, to Harry's relief. He felt as though his insides would be coming out quite soon because she was hugging him so tightly.

     He managed to squeak out, "Let's all go talk in the living room, OK?" They all happily headed to the living room.

    "Harry, I am so glad to see you," Hermione said.

Harry said, "I have missed all of you. It has been a really difficult summer for me, and I am sure for all of you with knowing that Voldemort is back in power." They all sat and thought about that, all dreading what this next year could bring. Harry broke the silence by saying "Do you two know that this is the first birthday I will be celebrating with my two best friends?"

    Hermione and Ron nodded happily in response. They could not say anything yet, but the two best friends, plus the Weasleys, the Grangers, and even Albus Dumbledore had something fairly unique planned to celebrate. It was still three weeks away, but things had been planned out almost as soon as they had both left Hogwarts. Dumbledore had wanted Harry to stay with the Dursleys for a while, which gave Hermione and Ron plenty of time to owl back and forth plans for the party.

    They still had a couple of weeks to wait. So they had planned quite a fun summer with dinners at The Leaky Cauldron, and playing Quidditch in the backyard of the Weasleys'. That included Harry teaching Hermione how to fly on a broomstick. Both Harry and Hermione were put on two of the Weasley's old Cleansweep brooms. Harry wanted them to start with a slower broom in the flying lessons. Hermione did surprisingly well, with Harry by her side all the way. She was surprised to see not only was she book smart, but was learning one of the best skills to have as either Wizard or Witch as well. For the time being, instead of Hogwarts: A History, she could be seen reading Quidditch Through the Ages. She had finally gotten the flying under control, so in came the Quidditch lessons.

    Fred and George had used some of the money Harry had given them to buy a neat little replica of a Quidditch game that could be played. Harry and Ron played the game with Hermione watching. They wanted to try this method of teaching her first, since this method was somewhat safer. After a few games, Hermione got to go up against Harry. She did remarkably well at controlling the Quaffle, even scoring quite a few goals. Harry's team, not surprisingly always caught the Golden Snitch though.

    The two best friends continued playing the Quidditch games and having fun. Harry of course won most of the games, up until one point, Hermione caught the Snitch with a great deal of luck. That was when Harry knew it was time to start practicing up in the air, on the brooms again. The whole Weasley family, excluding the parents of course, played this time. Hermione was just a Chaser, with Ron, Harry, and Fred on her team. Fred was a Beater and Ron was Keeper, with Harry Seeker of course. On the other team were George, Bill, Charlie, and Ginny. George was a Beater, Bill was a Chaser, and Charlie Seeker, with Ginny playing as the Keeper.

    This game was surprisingly intense. They did not have goalposts, so the Keepers just hovered over the general goal area and kept balls out. This proved to be more challenging than ever. Fred was very diligent about protecting Hermione, Ron, and Harry from the Bludgers. George, being a Beater as well, was just as cautious as his brother was. Bill was obviously better than Hermione, but he had years of practicing and playing before him, while she had only flown just days before and played Quidditch more in theory. The game was fifty to seventy when Hermione managed to get two goals past Ginny! Finally, they were tied. Charlie and Harry were both happily diving and doing courageous tricks on the broom while waiting for the time to really begin hunting for the Snitch. Finally, Hermione got another goal, and Harry began to look earnestly. Just as he found the Snitch and had it in his hand, Hermione lost her concentration and started to fall off her broom!

"Help! Someone, help me!" she yelled, waiting for someone to help her get either back on her broom or down safely. Harry dropped the Snitch, flew swiftly over to her, and started helping her get back on her broom. Thankfully, she was low enough now to let the old broom drop safely and swiftly climbed on to Harry's broom with him.

    Harry landed the broom and the two got off. Hermione looked very flushed and scared. She was shivering from the fright of the incident. Harry looked at her, pulled her close, and kissed her gently on the lips.