Hermione sat at the end of the table sipping a glass of juice. Harry and Ron had just dragged themselves out of bed, Ginny was busy doing her hair and Fred and George were entertaining themselves by hiding the Hogwarts book lists from Mrs. Weasley. It was the summer between third and fourth year and Hermione could hardly wait to go back. She took a bite of her toast and Ron sat down across from her and smiled.
“He has been acting awfully strange all summer,” she thought to herself and continued sipping her juice.
“Hurry and eat everyone! Harry you look half starved, have some toast dear. We’ve got to be off soon!” said Mrs. Weasley while frantically putting on her outer clothes. “Oh! Ginny get away from that mirror!”
Hermione ran to the closet to get her jacket.
“Here you are Hermione,” said Ron as he held the open the coat. He had ran from the kitchen when he saw Hermione heading for the coat racks and was some what out of breath when he held the coat open. The affect however, had been as he desired.
Hermione gave him a strange look. “Gee, thanks Ron,” she smiled and slipped into the coat. She ran to the fireplace without a glance back and Ron’s face turned as red as the hair on his head. They were to be traveling by Floo powder.
“You first Hermione!” Mrs. Weasley sweetly demanded as she guided Hermione into the fireplace. Hermione hesitated but eventually she took a deep breath and grabbed a handful of powder.
“Diagon Alley!”
Instantaneously she felt the ground leave her feet. Her elbow hit the side of the chimney sending a pile of ash and soot into her face and eyes. She screamed loudly and vomited on the rug of one of the living rooms she was whizzing by. She finally fit the floor at Flourish and Blotts. Thankfully her face broke the fall.
She pawed around on the ground until she found a wall. Pulling herself up against it she started rubbing the soot out of her eyes. No matter how much she rubbed her eyes she wasn't able to properly remove it. Ginny appeared in the fireplace a few seconds later. She spotted Hermione and choked back a giggle.
“Hermione, come here!” Ginny laughed.
“Hold on, I need to get this out of my eyes.”
“You can to that over here!” Ginny snorted. Hermione couldn’t see it, but the wall she now had her bottom propped up against wasn’t a wall at all. It was a young man, about 17 years old who went by the name of Cedric Diggory.
Once she could see Hermione turned around and found her chin almost touching his chest. She raised her eyes to see Cedric looking down at her with a humorous look on his face. She was utterly horrified, she took a step back. Then another.
“I-I… I have to wash my face!” she stuttered, the scent of vomit wafted into Cedric's nostrils and he gave her a quizzical look. Looking even more terrified she ran into the ladies restroom. Ginny giggled once again and followed her in where she found Hermione violently scrubbing her face.
“Would you stop laughing?” Hermione asked as she pulled her red face out of the sink.
“Did you think he was a wall or something?”
“You would have thought he was a wall if you had your eyes closed too.”
“Really? Are his abs that hard?” Ginny remarked which sent her into another giggle fit. Hermione wasn’t as amused. She grabbed Ginny’s arm and dragged her out of the bathroom and then out the front door of the store. Cedric turned and watched them leave, smiling about the previous events.
“Why didn’t you tell me someone was there!” Hermione asked angrily. Ginny however was too preoccupied with laughing that she was unable to answer her. “Let's go into the robe shop before you laugh yourself into submission.”
As soon as they entered the shop Ginny’s attention quickly changed. Immediately she went to the back of the shop and picked up an enormous floor length black skirt. She eyed it over and then ran into the change room.
“He seemed to be enjoying it,” Ginny remarked from the dressing area.
“Huh?”
“Cedric-- that is his name right? He’s in Hufflepuff-- I think he was really enjoying where you decided to place your arse.”
“GINEVRA!” Hermione said as she suppressed a giggle. “That’s-- That’s,” she composed herself, “well to be completely frank its disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourself! No civilized person would ever mention such a thing.”
“I’m sure if Harry or Ron had seen it they would have thought the same thing!”
“I don’t think so,” she retorted, “and don’t you dare tell Ron about this Ginny!”
Ginny laughed from behind the curtain, “I wont. Anyway how do I look?” and she stepped out from behind the curtain looking like her bottom half had been swallowed up buy a whale and struck a pose.
The girls met with Mrs. Weasley at Flourish and Blotts. Ginny had to go in first however, to make sure Cedric was no where to be found. Hermione hid outside behind a lamp post hoping that she wouldn't be seen.
“Hey Hermione,” said a nervous voice from behind her as she stepped into the store, “would you like to come to Stationers with me? I need to buy a quill or two.”
Hermione turned around, it was Ron.
“Of course I’ll come. I need some parchment anyway.”
They walked mainly in silence. It was the awkward kind, and was likely unpleasant for any bystander within 3 feet of the couple. In fact, in the 10 seconds it had taken them to leave the store Ron seemed to have developed separation anxiety from Hermione and insisted upon walking as close as possible to her. In spite of the uneasiness felt by all Hermione’s mind began to wander.
“I’ll have to face Cedric eventually…” Hermione mused to herself.
“I’ve started reading a book… Hermione?” he said after she didn’t respond.
“Huh? That’s great Ron, which book?” she said, pretending to be interested.
“I’ve started Hogwarts: A History. I thought once I’ve finished it we’d have loads to talk about.”
“That’s great. Tell me when you’ve finished it.”
“I wonder where he is right now? I hope he doesn’t see me with Ron. Certainly he should have gone home by now…”
“Ginny gave me this book to read--” Ron said. Hermione nodded very mechanically. “It’s awful. It’s about a girl named Anne and a boy named Tom and she’s completely, what’s the word…”
“I can’t stop thinking about this, I’ve got to clear my head. I’m just completely…”
“enamored with him!” Ron said as he recalled what Ginny had told him about the book. Obviously he wasn’t really going to read it, he just needed something to talk to Hermione about.
“WHAT! I’m just embarrassed! Who said anything about enamored, Ronald!?” Hermione said in a huff and stormed off.
Satellites and Sentiments by plusdracoequalslove
Chapter Notes: My first fan fiction. I do hope you all enjoy! I assure you this wont be like every other Romance Fiction where it becomes almost intolerably mushy. I'm going to put most of my effort into making this unlikely pair become believable. So once again, please enjoy as this is for you!