"So, when Katie was reaching for the pitcher of juice, she turned to look at Angelina who had just said something really clever." Ron paused to watch as Harry finally decided to move his pawn.
"And that gave George the opportunity that he had been waiting for," Harry continued for Ron.
"George charmed the pitcher to look like a giant beetle. Katie didn't notice until she was about to pour her self a glass." Ron grinned at Hermione. "And what does one do when they discover that their pitcher of juice now looks remarkably like a huge fat beetle with wiggling antennas and everything?" Ron asked Harry.
"She threw it." Harry said quickly. "Right at Fred, although that could have been an accident."
"You might think that a beetle couldn't really knock someone unconscious." Ron paused to scrutinize the chessboard. "But the charm George used only made the pitcher look like a beetle."
Harry frowned as Ron took a knight before he said, "It was still, in fact, a heavy pitcher of juice."
"And that is why my dear older brother is now spending the afternoon in the hospital wing."
"And Katie isn't speaking to George," Harry added.
Hermione pulled the scarlet quilt tighter around her shoulders, she was still dripping wet, Harry and Ron had both insisted that she sit and listen to them retell their very exciting morning that she had missed. "Will he be all right?" She asked with a slight twinge of worry.
"Oh he'll be fine, Fred has a hard head." Ron took Harry's king.
Harry look nonplussed over his defeat and grinned and Ron, "it must be a Weasley trait."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ron sniffed with disapproval sounding incredibly like Hermione.
Hermione unfolded herself from the sofa she had been perched upon and pushed her wet sleeves up. "Well if you don't mind, I'm going to go find something dry to wear."
"Where were you anyway?" Harry asked.
Ron stopped setting up the pieces for the next game and looked Hermione up and down again, "you look like you had a fight with the giant squid and I'd wager all of my chocolate frogs I've got leftover from Christmas that you won."
"I was...I was just working on my Arithmancy project." Hermione became very interested in the intricate gold brocade lion on the front of the red blanket she had been using.
"Oh," both boys said together.
Hermione glanced up at them to see Ron mouth "Malfoy" and Harry nod in agreement.
"Look, what we're doing is really important." Hermione felt herself begin to flush though since the last hour of their time together had had nothing to do with class work.
As if reading her thoughts Ron made a gagging sound in the back of his throat, "ehh, Hermione, we don't want to know."
Hermione scowled at them both and walked across the common room to the girls' stairwell, she looked back at them expecting to see Ron glaring darkly at her, but her friends were once again deep into a chess match. She smiled then as she watched them, they had known who she had been with, and neither of them seemed upset. They had become almost accepting. It was probably because they thought she had just gone a little crazy being a young, teenage girl. But if that made things easier for them to handle, Hermione didn't mind.
Hermione crawled onto her bed and pulled the thick, warm quilt up to her chin. Her clean wet hair was pulled up on top of her head in a knot that would never have stayed in place had she been a muggle girl. She had to admit; Lavender and Parvarti did know a few good tricks. It wasn't even lunchtime yet but Hermione was thinking about just how good it would be to take a nap. Thunder rumbled distantly from outside the tower and Hermione snuggled deeper, even more of a reason to stay in bed.
