Madness in the Rain

Oh gods!

Hermione rubbed her eyes and blinked several times and looked at the ground next to her where her best friend was asleep on the floor. In a sudden rush the events of last night came to her. She had a lot more reason while she was awake and she realized that her Mum would be in soon to wake her and would walk in to find a strange guy in boxer shorts next to her bed. Jumping up she shook Harry awake. "Hmmm...Herm?" he mumbled.

"Harry I have to get you out..." she heard footsteps in the hallway coming towards her room. "Holy.... Oh gods..." she looked frantically around and in one quick motion she opened her closet door, shoved Harry inside and slammed t shut. Her bedroom door opened and her mother stuck her head in.

"Hermi... oh... hello dear. I didn't realize you were up already. Your father's made you breakfast We've got to run and catch the plane darling, we're already running late. Thank the gods you were running late... three seconds earlier and I would be brighter than a tomato trying to convince my mom of any good reason that a half dressed Harry was hiding in the closet! Hermione started to blush at the thought. "Well see you in a week then dear, we'll call you in the evenings around 6." With this her mother left.

Hermione flopped down on her bed in relief. Just as Harry was tentatively peeking out of the closet her father opened the door. "The closet door shut quickly and Mr. Granger raised his eyebrow and said, "Wha- ...never mind. Honey, I have to go quickly now but... we'll miss you. Bye then muffin." He kissed her forehead and left. This time Harry waited until he heard the Grangers' car pull away until he opened the door.

"Well that was certainly close." Harry said, with a sigh of relief. Hermione promptly smacked him on the head with a pillow. "Oomph... ouch Herm... hey..." He grabbed a pillow and began retaliating. Several minutes later they both lay on the floor completely worn out and laughing uncontrollably. Hermione rolled over to face Harry. With a big smile she jumped up and reached out to help him up.

"Breakfast time, and you can tell me why you're here."

Harry nodded and they set off down the hall to the kitchen where Hermione set out two plates of bacon, eggs, and toast and two glasses of pumpkin juice. They sat down and Hermione crossed her hands on her lap and waited patiently. Harry cleared his throat and looked abashed. "Well..." he began, "My uncle was threatening to kick me out again." He took a bite of toast. Hermione frowned at this obvious stalling. He swallowed and continued. "Right, so he was saying that he'd kick me out if I intended to keep Hedwig, because she's been bringing back dead mice and things and my Aunt Petunia was all in a huff and had tried to lock her in her cage and then later on in the week she tried to lock the windows so that Hedwig couldn't get back inside, and-"

"Harry!" said Hermione cutting off Harry's seemingly endless banter. "What happened when he threatened to kick you out?"

"Yes... well, that...ahem...he did it."

"He kicked you out of the house?" Harry nodded. Hermione's eyes flew up to the bruise on his temple. "Did he hurt you Harry?" harry followed her eyes and felt his head.

"Oh that. No. The strangest thing happened on the way here. I was walking along the roadside about to call for the Knight Bus and my wand started twitching. It was trying to point itself at my head and finally I let it go and it flew at me. It was really weird." Hermione's eyes were wide.

"Do you think... maybe it was You-Know-Who, Harry?" She said in a low voice. Harry shook his head.

"I think it had something to do with the storm. Maybe the lighting made it funny." Hermione was chewing her lip, a habit she had when she was trying not to look nervous.

"It could be, Harry. We know that magic, in great quantities like at Hogwarts, makes electric muggle equipment work oddly. Maybe it works both ways. There was a lot of electricity in the air last night because of the lightning." She looked less certain than she sounded. "I think we should tell Professor Dumbledore about this, Harry."

"Okay," said Harry reluctantly. He knew that there would be no peace for him if he didn't agree. Hermione smiled. "I would rather tell him in person though," Harry said quickly. "He might need to see the wand or something, so I'll tell him as soon as school starts." Hermione looked doubtful. "I promise," added Harry.

"Well in any case, we have at least a week until my parents come back from France," said Hermione with a smile. "Let's go out and have some fun." Harry smiled substantially brighter at the thought of a whole week of fun with Hermione.