Through The Years (Ron and Hermione Short Stories)

The Trouble with Cleaning-Part 2

Mrs. Weasley called Ron and Hermione over when they entered the kitchen. She plunged right in to what their individual tasks would be. "Fred and George I want you to sweep and wash the entire floor and most of the wall. And watch how you use your wands! Don't overdo it just because you're of age "

The twins began their task sullenly, but Hermione noticed discontentedly that they seemed to be doing a lot of whispering while shooting glances toward her and Ron. They were planning something, and it probably wasn't pleasant.

"Ginny, I'd like you to polish the table and benches and take a look at the silverware when you're done," Mrs. Weasley continued without taking a breath, "Ron you can work on cleaning out the stove and cupboards, Hermione, dear, you can work on cleaning out the pantry, and I will be decontaminating the display cases."

She cast one satisfied look around to make sure everyone was beginning work on their assigned tasks, before striding toward several large display cases at the end of the hall.

Hermione headed towards the grubby pantry tucked away in the corner of the hall. Although it was a fairly large pantry, it was stuffed so full of food that Hermione had to squeeze inside carefully to avoid knocking anything over.

The shelves were covered with numerous jars, cans, boxes, and crates, some of which were admitting a foul odor or had a thin layer of mold covering them. With a sigh at the sight of the task that lay before her, Hermione began to sort through a load of apples throwing them into a crate.

An hour later she was still hard at work. When she was finally done organizing everything, she planned to throw away all the rotten and molded items, which there was an overabundance of. Just as Hermione finished organizing the onions, Ron, to her surprise, stuck his head through the door.

"I just finished, do you need any help?"

"Sure, Thanks." Hermione smiled and watched as Ron struggled to fit his way into the pantry. "I still have to finish organizing everything, but you can start throwing out anything that's, well, un-eatable." She gestured vaguely toward some molded tomatoes.

"Right." Ron narrowly avoided tripping over a large stack of flour sacks lying on the floor. After a few moments of concentrated silence, Ron presented what was clearly on his mind, "There's one thing I forgot to mention while we were upstairs."

Hermione nodded to show she was listening.

"I don't think we should mention anything about what happened last year with Cedric, or the maze, or the tournament." He tossed some fungus covered apples into a nearby waste basket.

"Defiantly." agreed Hermione, "If Harry wants to talk about it, we'll let him bring it up."

Just then an almightily 'SLAM' rent the air as the pantry door was forcefully shut, and she and Ron were plunged into total darkness.

"Ron?"

"Hermione?"

"Did you shut the door?"

"No, did you?"

"No."

"Then who did?"

"I don't know."

A loud 'ouch' was heard from Ron as his toe slammed into a crate on the floor. Hermione slowly slide to the floor as she listened to Ron trying to force open the door. This was great, just great. All she wanted was a nice, simple day of cleaning. And what did she get? Stuck in a cramped, pitch-black pantry with the one person in the world who made her, well, she had to admit, slightly uncomfortable. After a few minutes of unsuccessful banging she heard Ron pant, "I think its jammed." He gave the door one more solid thud before giving up.