Chapter 2

The next morning, they once again got woken up quite early. After the events of last night no one was complaining. They all wanted, to get away from the camping place as quickly as possible. Hermione was still a bit furious as she thought back to what happened to the house elf of Mr. Crouch and what the Death Eaters did to this muggle family. Luckily Mr. Weasley knew the man who was passing out the portkeys, so they could leave quite quickly.

As the Burrow finally was in sight Mrs. Weasley ran towards them. She directly ran towards her husband and hugged him. Then to the surprise of all she hugged the twins and cried “Oh my boys.” They even banged their heads together due to the tight hug. “Aww mom you’re hurting us” they both screamed.

Ron suggested they could go play some Quidditch. Something Hermione didn’t understand as she herself was nearly falling asleep on the spot and she could see the other were tired too.
“You should go to sleep as well, Ron. Don’t you see Harry is tired and we all should get some more sleep” Hermione said.
“No, I want to play Quidditch now” Harry immediately answered.
Hermione saw the concerned look on Harry’s face, but she was too tired to argue with the boys. On her way to Ginny’s room, she met Crookshanks as soon as he saw Hermione, he started to wrap himself around her legs and purred. As her and the cat entered Ginny’s room, they saw that Ginny was already asleep. Hermione really couldn’t understand how the boys were able to play quidditch in that moment. She was exhausted and followed Ginny’s lead and fell asleep soon after.

The next few days still felt strange as Mr. Weasley and Percy weren’t around much as they had to work overtime because of what happened at the Quidditch world cup. After some time, the mood lifted again. The boys and Ginny continued to play Quidditch whilst Hermione stuck to her habit of reading under the tree. Hermione also made it one of her habits to wake up early as she enjoyed being up early with George and to spend some quiet time together. Sometimes they would talk about things of course. Hermione was surprised to find out that it was possible to have a civilised conversation with one of the twins.

George told her about his and Freds wish to have a shop and sell their Weasley’s wheezing wizard’s products. And Hermione told him how it was to grow up as a muggle. Hermione was also surprised that George shared at least a bit of Mr. Weasleys fascination for Muggles.

When Hermione came into the kitchen on a particularly beautiful summer morning George was already standing there fully dressed and seemed ready to go out.
“Are you going somewhere?” Hermione asked him a bit confused.
“I was hoping you would come with me. I want to go to the village and maybe if you have some muggle money we could go buy some breakfast for us.” George said a bit excited.

“Sure, I will get some money from my trunk.” Hermione answered still a bit confused.

Ginny still was asleep when Hermione snuck into the room to get the money. Crookshanks was lying next to Ginny. When she passed him he lifted his head and let out a small meow. Hermione put her finger on her lips in hope he would stop. To her surprise he actually did stop meowing and went back to sleep.

“I’m ready to go” Hermione said as she arrived back in the kitchen.

“Great let’s go” George answered with a smile and he opened the door and held it open for Hermione.

It didn't take long for them to pass the first houses in the village. Some minutes later they stood in front of a little bakery. The bakery stood out with it’s turquoise panelling along with the wooden sign with the words 'Ottery Bakery' in gold lettering.

“What a creative name” Hermione said dryly.

“I know” Geroge answered with a broad smile. “Wanna go in?”

“Sure, as a child I rarely went to the bakery since my parents weren’t a big fan of a lot of sugar.” Hermione answered and went in first.

The only other person in the shop was the old lady behind the counter. Hermione was a bit surprised by the broad variety of baked goods this bakery had to offer.

George must have noticed that she was a bit overwhelmed since he quickly chose some treats for them. He even tried to pay but Hermione had to help him a little with the money.

On their way back they sat down on a bench and started to eat.

“You seemed to know what you were doing. Do you come here often?” Hermione asked after she swallowed the last bit of her food.

“Not really. Mom doesn’t want us to be in the village to often. But me and Fred go sometimes anyway.” George answered.

“Is she scared that you would do or say something magical in front of the muggle?” Hermione asked.

“I guess so, or maybe she just doesn’t want Dad to come here too often.” George replied with his usual smile on his face.

“I can understand that.” Hermione said and smiled back at him.

Hermione was relived that no one seemed to be up when they came back. She was scared that they were out too long and that the others were looking for them. But no one was around as she said goodbye to George in the kitchen and went back to Ginny's room.

Ginny didn’t seem to have ever noticed that Hermione was getting up so early as she never asked her about it. Since Hermione got up so early, she mostly went to bed before Ginny. The younger girl often stayed up longer to play some wizard chess with Ron or play something with the Twins. During the day George “behaved normal” so he didn’t talk much to Hermione. Which was totally okay for Hermione.

It was the last evening before their return to Hogwarts when George used the general loudness in the house to his advantage and pulled Hermione to the side to talk to her.
“I’m gonna miss our little get togethers in the morning Hermione”. George said with a smirk on his face. Hermione was a bit surprised that George seemed to enjoy their conversation as much as she did. And that he openly admitted it.
“I’m often the first person at the breakfast table on the weekends in Hogwarts. I wouldn’t mind a bit of company from time to time” Hermione said and quickly turned away so he couldn’t see that her cheeks turned red. As she turned around, she saw that Harry was looking at them. Since she had no idea what this was, she just answered his questioning expression with a shrug and went to Ginny’s room.