About Slytherins and Gryffindors

Harry dialed the number he had been given, Ron anxiously standing besides him trying to find out if there was anything happening. He had wanted to call, but everyone had agreed on the fact that Harry would know how to behave when talking on the phone and after the incident with Mr. Weasley and Uncle Vernon, Harry was sure that Wizards without any knowledge about Muggles shouldn't try to use the telephone.

"What's going on?" Ron asked as Harry had finished dialing. "What is she saying?"

Harry wanted to explain it, but Bill quickly dragged his younger brother away and explained him that Harry hadn't reached Hermione yet. Bill had taken Muggle Studies at Hogwarts and seemed to understand quite a bit about Muggle technique from what Harry knew although he wasn't as fanatic as Mr. Weasley and seemed to know more about things like telephones than his dear old dad.

The phone rang five times and Harry was going to hang up when he heard a voice on the other side of the line but it wasn't Hermione's.

"Yeah?", a man's voice asked somewhat annoyed. He had most likely been woken up by the phone ringing, but this was nearly unbelievable, it was two o'clock -- and not in the morning but in the afternoon.

Harry couldn't remember ever hearing this voice, it surely wasn't Mr. Granger. The voice sounded more like the one of a young man and Harry was sure that the Grangers didn't sleep till that late.

"Hello, I'm Harry Potter, I go to school with Hermione," Harry introduced himself. "Can I talk to her, please?"

He wasn't even sure if he had dialled the right number. Maybe this was someone else and that was a good reason not to mention the school's name.

"A friend of Hermione's, eh? She talked about you all the time, y' know? About you and Ron Beasley."

"Weasley," Harry corrected automatically. "And she talked?"

He had noticed the other man talking about Hermione in the past tense and Harry didn't like that. He knew that he had dialled the right number, but who was this man and why did he have the sensation that something was completely wrong?

"She's been too busy to talk about you ever since I convinced her to go to that club with me. Met a nice boy there, y' know how girls work, don't you?" The emphasis on the word "that" made Harry feel as if he was supposed to know what club this man was talking about, but of course he didn't.

Additionally, Harry's feeling had confirmed itself. Something was definitely wrong. If he could believe this man, Hermione had gone out at night and to some Muggle festivity for younger people and that seemed to be more than just out of character for his friend.

"Are we talking about the same girl? My friend's name is Hermione Granger and as far as I know she doesn't go to clubs and isn't interested in much but studying."

He knew what a stupid question this was seeing that the man had told him Hermione had talked about him and Ron, even if he had gotten Ron's last name incorrectly.

"Hermione Granger is my cousin, I know her, probably a lot better than you." The man didn't sound as tired as when he had gotten to the phone, but he still didn't seem to be totally awake and Harry decided that he should better talk to Hermione herself.

"Okay, whatever, can I talk to her now?"

"I have to check if she's home," her cousin announced, probably walking through the house now. "I mean, she's surely at home, but I'm not sure if she's awake yet."

Harry tried to convince himself that all this was nothing but a joke, maybe this cousin was a prankster, trying to shock him as he knew Hermione's attitude as well as everyone else. Yeah, that was it, it was nothing but a joke, a bad joke, that was true, but nothing he had to worry about.

Dull voices could be heard, one of them belonging to the man Harry had been talking to and another one, maybe, hopefully Hermione's.

"Hello?" Hermione sounded terribly tired, Harry could tell he had woken her up and that she hadn't had enough sleep in the past few days.

"Hermione, it's me, Harry."

"Hey Harry!" Her voice wasn't that sleepy anymore, she was so surprised he had called her that she seemingly had forgotten about being tired. "How are you? Why are you calling? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," Harry quickly interrupted her before she could start asking him if he was studying enough for the next year, "and so is Ron if you were going to ask. We decided to call you because ... uh ... we've been sending you owls over the past few weeks and well, you never answered,
usually Hedwig and Pig return us the letters we sent and we were worrying about you."

"Oh, yeah, owls ... I've just been incredibly busy. My cousin Jake's here and wherever he goes, I have to go with him. I've hardly been at home at night in the last month and my parents want the window closed at night because there are burglars around and I guess the owls weren't patient enough to wait till I come home. He takes me to the strangest places. We often go to this really weird place. You can sit there and listen to music, you aren't allowed to talk or look at the people
around you but you are allowed to make physical contact. It's like there are people you don't know, not even from seeing, and before you know they are holding your hand. And even than you aren't allowed to look at them. It's very eccentric."

Hermione's report made Harry feel like she had gone to some kind of freakshow with her cousin, the man he had talked to. Harry had never been to parties or discotheques or anything but he was sure that he'd never go to the place Hermione had just told him about and she hadn't sounded like she had enjoyed her journey to this peculiar club.

"Your cousin, he mentioned something about a boy you are supposed to be seeing. Tell me that is was a joke." Harry wasn't even sure anymore. This Jake seemed to bring Hermione's life out of its usual balance and everything was possible.

"Er, ... I'd really love to, Harry, but ..." There was an awkward silence. "Well, ... it's not like there is anything, we're just enjoying each other's company. This club I told you about, there's where I met him and we didn't talk, we just sat around holding hands and somehow it was nice. Bit it's not like I have a crush on him or anything, it's more like we're friend, ... somehow, in a very odd way, it's a summer thing, it'll be over in some days anyway."

"How can you be so sure about it?"

"It's obvious. As soon as we started to talk, we found out there's not one thing we have in common, we disagree about everything, no matter what we are talking about. The only way of us having a relationship would be if both of us were mute." She paused for a few seconds. "And
not even then because I don't like him in this way, I don't like him in any way. I think he is one of the results of Jake's bad influence on me and now Jake thinks that we are going steady or something and we aren't but it is a good thing he thinks so because now he has stopped
introducing me to every guy he has talked to for five minutes."

All this revelations about what Hermione was doing were nearly too much for Harry. He had never ever expected anything like this. He decided to think about it later and change the subject as none of them was very happy about it.

"Don't you want to come to the Grimmauld Place? Everyone's here, the Weasleys and well, everyone, you're the only one missing." In his thoughts Harry added "and Sirius" but he didn't say it, he knew how much everyone was concerned and it wouldn't change if he mentioned his
godfather.

"Oh, Harry, I'd love to," Hermione said excitedly, "but I can't, I'm sorry. There's so much trouble at home with Jake and everything, I can't just leave, it wouldn't be fair. But we can still meet and spend the day together at Diagon Alley or somewhere." She really felt sorry that she couldn't join her best friends at the headquarters of Order of the Phoenix.

"Okay." Harry couldn't hide the disappointment. "I'll send you an owl then so we can find a day to meet."

"I'll try to stay at home tonight to avoid not getting the letter once again. Bye Harry." With this, she hang up.

Hermione sighed and leaned back on her pillow once again, looking around in her room, her eyes finally meeting another pair of eyes very close to her own.

"You have woken me up," the owner of the grey eyes told her and his voice indicated that he was in a very bad mood.

"Stop complaining. You should be happy that you have a place to sleep," she shot back and got up. She was fully clothed in jeans and a dark blue top, her hair was in a messy ponytail.

Jake, who was leaning against the doorframe looked at his cousin questioning. "Why didn't you put on your pyjama before going to sleep?"

The other grey-eyed person got up and he was clad in jeans and a black t-shirt.

"You won't tell me you two were too tired to change clothes, right? Because I heard the noise you were making when arguing before finally going to sleep."

"I've never imagined sharing a bed with her and if I have to, it's important to ensure that no contact in made." He eyed his pale skin and walked over to a suitcase that was in one corner of the room. "Would you turn around? I want to put on another shirt." He told Hermione.

"My God," Jake exclaimed. "If she asked you to turn around when changing, it'd be okay, but there's nothing to hide. You're a man, you don't have breasts."

Ignoring Jake Hermione turned to her not totally wanted visitor: "You don't need to ask. I don't want to see more of you than I already have to see."

"With my body, Granger, what woman can resist?" he growled and finally took off his shirt.

Hermione had squeezed her eyes shut to ensure she didn't see anything. "You're way to convinced of yourself, Malfoy."