Through The Years (Ron and Hermione Short Stories)

Of Skiing and Window Seats

You know that part in HPOoP when Ron's just been made Keeper and there's this celebration going on? Yeah, I thought you would. Well, what if Hermione hadn't gone to bed but stayed at the party for a bit longer....Let's start with a bit from the book, shall we?

"'Oh no,' said Hermione, looking relieved, 'if you're going that means I can go without being rude too, I'm absolutely exhausted and I want to make some more hats tomorrow. Listen, you can help me if you like, it's quite fun, I'm getting better, I can do patterns and bobbles and all sorts of things now.'

Harry looked into her face, which was shining with glee, and tried to look as though he was vaguely tempted by this offer.

'Er...no, I don't think I will, thanks,' he said. 'Er--Not tomorrow. I've got loads of homework to do....'

And he traipsed off to the boys' stairs, leaving her looking slightly disappointed behind him." ~HPOoP p.278

Hermione watched Harry rush up to the boys' dormitory, feeling a bit put out. Why couldn't he understand she was doing the right thing by freeing these house elves? Maybe one day he'd come around. A yawn overtook her as she turned towards the girls' staircase. She really did need to get to sleep. However, she has barely made it up the first step when a loud voice called to her over the party noise.

"Hermione!"

She spun around to find Ron hailing her from the other end of the room. It is a big night for him, she reasoned with herself, it's not often that things like this happen for him. With a sigh, she glanced at the clock. It read 11:50 pm. She could afford to stay up a bit longer. Practically all her homework for the week was finished anyways. She walked over to Ron who was guzzling Butterbeer as he sat on the rug in front of the fireplace, leaning against the legs of an armchair. She sat cross-legged on the floor next to him.

"How many Butterbeers have you had?" She glanced concernedly at the steadily growing pile of empty bottles. Ron looked confused for a moment then noticed what she was looking at and laughed.

"Those aren't all mine. Relax, Hermione. Do you always have to be so serious?"

"Sometimes I really think I do." She glanced suspiciously at Fred and George who were making their way through the crowd talking to different people and writing their names down on a clipboard, most likely gathering more test subjects for their joke products.

Ron looked over his shoulder at the twins before taking a huge swig of Butterbeer. "Come on Hermione. Leave them alone for one night."

She said nothing and merely turned away from them. After a moment she took a breath and said, "So let me get this straight. You're now the person who guards the three hoops so the other team can't score, right?"

"Right," said Ron proudly. "To be honest, I didn't really think I was good enough. I mean I thought I had some chance, but there was this one bloke who could really pull off some moves."

"But they chose you." Hermione couldn't suppress a smile at his enthusiasm.

"Yeah, yeah they did." Ron beamed back at her. There was a comfortable silence in which Ron opened another Butterbeer bottle.

"I'm glad you shortened your teeth."

"What?" Hermione was caught completely off guard.

"You know, last year, when you got hit with that curse and you had Madam Pomfrey shorten your teeth to fix them." Ron gestured with his bottle as if this was a normal topic of conversation.

"Yes, I remember." Hermione had no idea where this was going.

"I'm just glad you shortened them." Ron shrugged.