New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|14| Chapter Fourteen

F O U R T E E N

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"Can you explain what all of that was because I think Harry and I are missing what they were actually talking about?"

After talking to the Weasleys for a bit longer, and finally meeting Ron's elder brothers Bill and Charlie (who arrived with Percy only a few minutes after Crouch and Bagman left, much to the dismay of Percy), Hermione and Ron accompanied Saffron and Harry back to their tent in order to get ready for the match and Saffron figured it was a prime opportunity to find out what had actually gone on during their Summer. As neither Hermione nor Ron looked even half as confused as Saffron or Harry did as the conversation unfolded in front of them.

Ron gave Hermione a look as if to say 'you tell them' and Hermione did so without hesitation.

Essentially, since they had seen them last, a lot had gone on with the Weasley family. Ron just never messaged them about it because both Saffron and Harry were far too consumed and invested in the trial of Peter Pettigrew. Ron didn't feel anything was even close to being as important as that, hence he didn't say anything until he told Hermione about it.

Percy aced his NEWTs, to no one's surprise and had already gotten a relatively good position within the ministry for graduate, only months out of school. He was Mr Crouch's personal assistant, working within the Department of International Magical Cooperation and was doing quite well for himself. On the flip side of things, Fred and George had scraped a handful of OWLs each, much to the chagrin of their mother and were now cultivating a joke shop business, titled Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The fake wands they had shown Mr Bagman was only one example of the wide range of products they were creating. That context probably would have helped Saffron understand what the adults were going on about and she was glad to have received it now.

"Now we just have to worry about whatever's happening at Hogwarts this year," Saffron sighed, crestfallen. "Can't nothing happen for once? You'd think the Ministry would want us to have a relaxing, normal year after the last three,"

"There's no such thing as a normal year," Ron told her matter-of-factly, though he felt sympathetic towards where he was coming from. "Not in Hogwarts,"

"Well, it could be more normal if the Ministry kept their noses out of it," Saffron responded in defence. None of them could argue that simply because they would have to wait and see how it would unfold.

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The four Gryffindors looked through around at the stalls and vendors on their way back to where Saffron and Harry were staying but still made it back quite quickly. By the looks of things, it was getting close to the 'throw-up' where the whistle would blow and the quaffle would be thrown into the air, signalling the beginning of the match. But Saffron knew they would have a nice moment before then as Sirius wouldn't stop going on about Hermione and Ron and how indebted he was towards them. She also knew that Sirius had a particular surprise up his sleeve (literally) for Ron.

Everybody was at the tent when they got there. Sage was tending to the fire, something she had a particular knack at, Sirius was talking to Maya, whilst Rachel observed Rowan and Noah playing a highly competitive game of snap, just not the exploding version. Once Saffron and the others arrived, Sirius was glowing with excitement.

"If it isn't Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley!" Ignoring any formalities, Sirius took Hermione and Ron into embraces. Both teenagers were grinning but thoroughly taken aback by how different Sirius was to when they last saw him at the end of the school year. He was a ghost of his former self in the best way possible. Sage gestured to Noah to stand up to greet the new arrivals, and they both did so much more formally as they were meeting Hermione and Ron for the first time. Whilst the other Mitchell siblings offered them waves. "Just the two I've been waiting to see. Never in my life did I think I'd find a group of Hogwarts students as lethal as my group were, but I think we've at least found a rival, which I thought was impossible, quite frankly,"

"He means that as a compliment," Sage assured Hermione firmly, as the younger girl was giving Saffron a confused look out of the corner of her eye.

"Of course I do," nodded Sirius enthusiastically. "I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you all for what you did for me, but I can give you this,"

Ron's eyes lit up when he realised that the you that Sirius was talking about was him. Saffron shared an amused look with Harry, both knowing what was about to happen.

"Noah, if you'll do the honours,"

With a groan, Noah moved over to his father and stood in front of him. He didn't do anything else before making something clear to Hermione and Ron. He looked over his shoulder and said:

"I just want you to know that it was his idea to show it to you like this, not mine,"

"Oh, son, they already knew that. Only a genius such as myself could come up with such an entrance,"

"An entrance that I toned down many notches to ensure it was appropriate for being shown in an environment with Muggles," Sage eyed Sirius with a sharp glint, almost to be certain that he hadn't gone back on his word of having the dramatic entrance he had come up with at first and that it remained to be heavily diluted as agreed.

"Trust me, I'm not going to do anything that might even give me the smallest chance of going back to Azkaban. I've done my time in there, twelve years of it," Sirius brought up the length of time he spent in Azkaban quite frequently as apparently, Harry remembered Sirius saying it a lot during their time in the Shrieking Shack when they were convinced Sirius was a raging murderous lunatic. Now they just thought he was a raging lunatic. "And on three, one, two, three!"

Scrunching his face up in concentration, Noah yanked at Sirius' sleeve and out of it burst an auburn tawny owl, its wings fluttering away excitably. Saffron wasn't sure what spell Sirius had used on the owl but whatever it was it hadn't done any damage to the owl as it seemed more lively than any owl Saffron had ever noticed before.

"Ta-da," Sirius said weakly and Saffron realised his voice was like that because Ron's expression was unreadable unless you knew Ron. Saffron could tell that Ron was gobsmacked and in disbelief that someone would get something this nice for him. But the likes of Sirius, Sage and Noah who hadn't met Ron before might have been confused by how Ron was narrowing his eyes. "It's okay if you don't want it. I understand. I thought that seeing as I forced you to give up your last pet, that I owed you a new one," He held the owl down lower, somewhat disheartened as Ron still hadn't said anything. "Don't worry about it, you don't have to keep it,"

"Keep it?" Ron gasped in shock and it was then that Sirius realised that Ron's lack of response wasn't out of indifference towards the owl but out of pure excitement. "Really?"

"Of course," Sirius nodded at him with a grin. "Don't worry about there being a human in there, I've done all the checks necessary,"

"Thank you," Was all Ron was able to get out.

Sirius shook his head. "No... thank you. I'm not sure an owl is even a sliver of the debt that I owe you, all four of you, but it's a start,"

"You don't owe us anything," Hermione told him adamantly. 

"Oh, I do," Sirius said matter-of-factly. "But I appreciate that you might not feel that way, but without the four of you, I wouldn't be standing here right now. So thank you,"

It was a touching moment and the perfect way to hear the gong ring out signalling the match being mere minutes away from commencing. None of the four teenagers who had been in the Shrieking Shack on that terrifying day felt that Sirius owed them anything. That said, the fact that he was willing to do so much for them meant a lot, to Saffron and Harry in particular. Hearing Sirius say those words to Hermione and Ron specifically was meaningful and further instilled the thought in Saffron's mind that the start of something new was underway in addition to the oncoming start of the final of the Quidditch world cup.