...Something For The Weekend?

Hermione's Tale

Poor Harry. You can't help but feel for him, especially when he has every bit as much right to celebrate his and Ginny's anniversary on Saturday as Ron and I do. Still, while his attempts to be subtle have improved over the years, he was trying to trick me, Hermione, Queen of subtle witches, into giving up the chance to spend the night with Ron.

I walked back to the Ministry after our lunch together, my mind churning as I thought of the coming weekend. I'd be spending some meaningful time with Ron. Very meaningful, if everything went according to plan. And my sources lead me to believe that it will.

I think I've been spending too much time with the twins, or at least their girlfriends, Angelina and Alicia. Apparently the twins always refer to sex as 'something for the weekend' when they're having 'manly' discussions with Ron and Harry that their girlfriends shouldn't interrupt. Wherever that peculiar phrase came from, it has rather lodged in my mind and I've been anticipating this particular weekend for some months now.

I can't imagine sometimes why it is that Harry is so very dense. He knows that I helped his girlfriend research Contraceptive Charms - when she was fifteen! I think Ginny has inherited her mother's attitude to sex - and yet it never seems to have occurred to him that I might have been interested as well.

I'm sure Harry would be shocked if he ever realised that I was probably the first of the four of us to begin thinking about, well, something for the weekend. I can pinpoint the moment exactly: Seeing Viktor Krum in his swimming trunks.

Oh, I never really thought about sleeping with Viktor, of course. I was fourteen at the time, and I didn't really know what sex was all about. Hogwarts never had a formal family planning class either, but it was generally accepted that sometime during a girl's time there, she would make her way along to either Madam Pomfrey or - bizarrely - Madam Pince. She could then get some useful tips and a few potions of the 'just add water' type that made certain times of the month rather more bearable.

But I digress. It was Viktor who first made me think about what boys - oh, very well, what Ron - had under his robes. While I certainly never acted on those thoughts until I was a good deal older, of late it has become more and more obvious that Ron and myself have been building towards a weekend of our own.

This weekend.

And Harry, I'm sorry, you're like a brother to me, but I wouldn't give this up for anyone. I'm nineteen years old and I'm ready to take the next step with my boyfriend.

And I really don't want you in the next room when I do it.

Er, when I take the next step, that is. Although as I suppose that does involve Ron and I 'doing it', then I don't want you around when I 'do it', either.

Oh, Merlin, so much for being sensible about this. . .

Fine. I want to make love to Ron, I want us to do it for the first time on Saturday evening and I don't want Harry Potter to get in the way. There, I said it.

But the problem is, I don't want Ron to know that I know. It's all been something of a game, and Ron's not very good about discussing this sort of thing. We've never actually put into words this feeling we have, this readiness. I'm blushing just at the thought of it. It will all be so much easier when we actually, well, do it.

There really must be a better way of describing it then that.

But it makes sense. It was so much easier to talk about our feelings once we were both certain we had them. That first kiss unlocked a lot of discussions that we probably should have had long before then, but it was perfect, just perfect, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

And now we've reached another point where I can't say what I want, and Ron won't say what he wants. But he knows, he has to know, and I know that he knows from some of the things that Angelina has said about his discussions with Fred.

Ron would be mortified to know that I know everything that he talks about with Fred and George. I understand that George tells Alicia everything that Harry asks about as well, and Alicia in turn tells Ginny. I don't know if the twins are aware of this arrangement, but I wouldn't be surprised.

So long as Harry and Ron don't find out, everything will be fine.

What we really need, of course, is some way of sending Harry and Ginny off for the weekend. Of course, Dobby has more money than Harry nowadays - even if Dobby is still only on one Galleon a week - and all of Ginny's money goes on, well, stuff. She doesn't earn much, and she spends it all immediately.

I'm not saying that I'm much better, of course, but I do try and save a little each month. Of course, I spend rather a lot on S.P.E.W., but it's worth every Knut. Regardless of what Harry believes, though, I don't have very much left over at the end of the month, so I can't exactly pay for them to spend the evening in Hogsmeade.

From what I can work out, though, I think Ginny was rather hoping for something special on Saturday. I do feel a little bad for disrupting Harry's plans, but he still has a lot to learn about romance and he really can't keep leaving things to the last minute anymore. He's been lucky so far, never more so than on Ginny's last birthday, but his luck had to run out eventually. Either Harry will think of someway around this in the next three days or he'll learn a valuable lesson.

Either way, I'll be blocking the Floo at Ron and Harry's flat on Saturday night. I don't want anyone calling at an unwelcome moment. And if Ron is actually thinking what I think - and hope - he's thinking, then any point after the door shuts could be an unwelcome moment on Wednesday.

Oh, would you look at that? I've been back in the office for nearly an hour, and I've not done a scrap of work. This is all Ron's fault, obviously. How am I supposed to concentrate when all I can think of is him?

Oh, I am sorry. I do rather get carried away when I think about Ron. I must concentrate more. I was talking about the weekend, wasn't I?

I remember now. I was going to talk about Angelina and Alicia, and how much help they've been to Ginny and I. They've been with the twins for years now, and while they don't go into detail about what they've done, I don't think that they keep many secrets from one another. Ginny and myself have benefited from their experience many times and it's wonderful to have such good friends. I don't think Ron always appreciates his elder brothers - even Percy, sometimes - offering him advice on his love life, and I know that Harry still feels as though Molly and Arthur get to hear everything that he and Ginny get up to. Besides, he can't really ask for too much advice from Ginny's brothers, can he?

Angelina plays Quidditch for the Kenmare Kestrels these days, so I'm never entirely sure if she's around or not. Ron very kindly gave me a complete Quidditch season planner for my birthday last week, though, and it even shows when a team is supposed to be training. Happily, Angelina wasn't with the team that evening, so I popped my head into the fireplace and called the flat that she and Alicia are sharing with Katie Bell. Happily, Angelina and Alicia were both there.

"Hermione," Angelina said, grinning widely. Angelina is a lot happier these days. Becoming a professional Quidditch player has vindicated all the hard work she put into the game at Hogwarts. Alicia waved in greeting. She's working for the Daily Prophet nowadays as a reporter. She's teamed up with Colin Creevey and they've managed several front-page stories as writer and photographer. I was very lucky to catch both the girls at home.

"What can we do for you?" Angelina asked. Alicia already had a quill in her hand, ready to take notes.

"Is there any advice that you can give me for Saturday night?" I said. We'd had this discussion at least twice before, but the girls are always very understanding about it.

"Relax, be ready to laugh -"

"- Not at him, though -"

"- and don't forget that it's all about how much you love each other. That's the important thing."

I feel better instantly. They're right, of course they're right. On that horrible day after my fourth year when Mum sat me down for The Talk, the one thing I feel happy remembering is her stressing that love should come before sex. I feel really terrible saying it, but when I look at someone like Pansy Parkinson who got pregnant in her final year only for Goyle to turn out to be a Death Eater. . . Well, I don't think that there was much love in their relationship.

But with Ron, I know I love him. I know he loves me, too. Not just because he says he does, but also all the countless things he does that show it. He's spent so much time learning about house-elves and Muggles and everything he thinks he needs to be able to be with me and even though I tell him over and over that he doesn't need to do these things, he still does.

And that's just one reason I love him.

And that's why on Saturday I'll be wearing something very definitely Muggle-made and designed purely to show him how much I love him and how much I want to do for him.

Back to the matter at hand, though.

"It's actually another problem I wanted advice on," I said, drawing myself back to the conversation.

"Another one?" Angelina asked in mock horror. Alicia laughed, and dipped her quill in an inkpot.

"It's Harry and Ginny. It's their anniversary tomorrow," I said. "Harry's trying to convince Ron to give up the flat on Saturday."

"And you'd rather he didn't?" Alicia asked, looking up from the parchment with a wicked grin on her face.

I didn't reply, just gave her a look. She laughed, and shook her head.

"I get the idea," she said. "I remember what I was like in your position. I nearly hexed Fred one day when he suggested we all go out on the evening that George and I. . . "

She tailed off, and coloured slightly as Angelina sniggered.

"I feel bad for them," I said. "Ginny deserves something special and Harry, well. . ."

It was my turn to tail off, but the girls nodded understandingly. Harry, for all his wonderful points, is a bit lacking in romance. He really doesn't have a clue how to make a girl feel special. We've tried dropping some hints, but it's going to take a really big shock to make him get the message, I think. Only Ginny can really give him that jolt, and she's been very patient so far.

I admit that I have an ulterior motive in that I want them far, far away from the flat on Saturday, but I can free two house-elves with one speech, can't I?

We tossed a few ideas around, but nothing really fit the event. Although Ginny enjoys Quidditch, I don't think free tickets to Angelina's match on Saturday would be quite the thing. A meal at a fancy restaurant was really out of the question as neither Ginny nor Harry has two Sickles to rub together, as I've already mentioned. For the same reason, we couldn't exactly arrange for them to spend the night at a hotel somewhere.

Eventually, Alicia threw her quill down in frustration.

"Why is this anniversary so important, anyway?" she said, scraping a hand back through her long, glossy hair. "They come and go, you know? It's Harry who should be trying to work out what to do, not us!"

"I imagine he is," Angelina said. "But we owe Ginny."

"And I think Saturday night was special for a reason," I said quietly. I didn't know for certain, but Ron and Harry tend to think along the same lines, even though I'm certain they'd not discussed this at all.

Alicia's eyes widened as she caught my meaning, and Angelina covered her mouth with her hand as she got it too.

"You think that Harry and Ginny. . ."

"Ron and he really do do everything together, don't they?"

I laughed. I hadn't thought of that, but it is true.

"Someone will need to tell Harry that he's got to do something special," Alicia said, firmly.

"Harry would be mortified if I said anything," I said. "He's very private about things like this. He'd probably give up any plans of going further with Ginny for the next year."

"Just imagine how happy that'd make her brothers," Angelina said, wryly. "I know that Charlie and Percy in particular aren't looking forward to the day that Ginny gives them proof that she's not a little girl anymore."

"Well, if Percy and Charlie won't help, Ron's dead set against giving up the flat and Bill's away in Egypt at the moment, there's only one thing for it," Alicia said, smiling wickedly.

"I know," I said. "It will certainly make the evening memorable. Now, who's going to be the one to tell Fred and George?

To be continued...