Hey guys, this is my first fanfiction where I actually let Seamus speak. So, obviously, I'm going to screw up on his accent. It would be so much easier if he were from the Southern United States, but then he wouldn't be as cute to me. So, please be patient with me and help me out on the Scottish/Irish dialect when you can.

Disclaimer: Anything you see here that you recognize is most likely J. K. Rowling's. Or maybe I borrowed it from another of my stories. I don't honestly know yet. But, duh, I don't own Harry Potter or any other related themes or characters. I sounded so official right there.

In the middle of summer

All was golden in the sky

All was golden when the day met the night

The two houses, poised at perfectly respected distances, were built structurally alike. The one to the left was three stories tall, the rooms built off both the left and the right sides on the first floor, as the same with the house to the right. The one to the left had a circular window on the attic, as with the house to the right. Balconies were built in on the second floor to one room on both houses that looked out over the backyards. The left house was painted with black trim and such, and the grey-blue siding often made it difficult to find in the night. The house to the right was painted a faint peachy color, with white trim.

The house on the right was cluttered with moving boxes, however, and one very irate Scottish boy.

Seamus glared at his reflection in the hallway mirror, eyeing the ironed fabric with distaste. He'd been stuffed into a white dress shirt and tie and tan pants. His hair was currently being worked on as his green eyes glared at his image.

Ainsley, his older sister by three years, fixed his hair, huffing when he fidgeted to make it fall back into its original place. After nearly the twentieth time, she yelled, "Fo' tha love of - ! Seamus Finnigan, quit yer twitchin'! Mam said ye have the look nice tah meet the neighbors, and yer hair is a disaster."

He sighed, but consented, instead grumbling out, "Why d' we have tah meet them? Shouldn' they come to us?"

"Mam already met tha woman o'er there, an' she looked in a rush tah say 'lo already. She invited us o'er tonight 'cause it was tha only time she, her husband, an' her daughter were all together."

"Muggles are twitchy lil' things, aren' they?" he said absently as they finally made their way down the stairs. His sister's hair was held back into a curly mass of strawberry blonde curls, freckles on her face and the same hue of green in her eyes that was in her brother's. She'd worn an orange sundress that matched their new house very nicely, with white flats and some necklace her ex-boyfriend had gotten her nearly two years ago.

"Well, they're still out lookin' for Sirius Black, I reckon, so maybe tha's why they're twitchy. And don' let Da hear ye say that, or he'll have yer head!" They grinned at each other before waiting in the stairway for their parents, who were wrestling their younger sister Blair into nice clothes. Their father, a man in his thirties, came down the stairs with Blair settled on his hip, looking miffed.

Calum sat the five year old down to straighten his clothes, the same scheme as Seamus' but in different patterns and colors. He had fading red hair, which had been given to both of his daughters, but not his son.

Blair huffed and turned to Seamus, who was already picking her up and hooking her onto his back. She'd been put into a blue dress with a white belt that she'd wrinkled her nose at many times that night. Her mother, having not enough time to fix her daughter's hair, just pulled the red locks through a ponytail holder and called it done.

"Ready!" Jamie Finnigran cried, putting on her earrings as she practically ran down the steps, complete with a bright green dress and pearls. She paused at the mirror at the end of the stairs, sweeping down her light brown bangs and hoping that having her hair cut so short was a normal Muggle thing. Calum had assured her that it was fine, but the man still hadn't figured out which way to turn the faucet on the shower, as announced by his early morning shouts of "COLD!"

"Ye sure?" Calum asked, arching an eyebrow at her, "Got e'erything?"

She paused and thought about it for a moment before cursing and running back up the stairs, "Shay, help me find my purse!"

He sighed as Ainsley and Blair grinned at him. He glanced around the hallway before picking the object off of the church bench. "Mam! I found it!"

"Thank you!" she sighed as she ran back down the stairs, taking it and giving him a quick peck on the cheek. She turned back to her husband, grinning, "Now I'm ready."

"Muggles are strange," Jamie concluded as Calum rang the doorbell. A few seconds passed as Blair played with Seamus' hair, as she was still on his back, before the door opened, showing a woman with brown hair cut to her jaw, wearing a pale yellow dress.

She gave a great sigh before beaming, "Sorry. My family is so – anyway. Please come in!"

Seamus walked in behind Ainsley, thinking that the house smelled nice, like mint and roses.

"I'm Patricia, my husband – Dale – is still trying to figure out how to tie his tie. He'll be down shortly," she said, still smiling.

"Jamie, in case you don't recall, and this is my husband Calum," Seamus' mum smiled.

"'Lo," Calum waved.

"I'm Ainsley," she introduced as Blair took to hiding behind Seamus' shoulders.

"Seamus, an' Blair is tha shy one," he grinned as he turned to look over at her, but she wasn't having any of it as she curled up against his back.

"I'm here!" the husband called, nearly tripping down the stairs. He had wayward brown hair and glasses, dressed in what looked like a labcoat.

"Honey!" Patricia hissed.

"What?" he blinked, looking down at his appearance. He gasped at the white coat he had on and quickly shrugged it off, shoving it into a closet under the stairs and slamming the door. Ainsley, Seamus and Blair all grinned at one another as Patricia sighed and hid her face.

"Sorry," Dale grimaced, "We're both dentists, and we just got home and I completely forgot about it. Sorry."

"It's alright," Calum nodded as Jamie wondered what exactly a dentist was again. It was something the kids had to go to on occasion, but she couldn't quite remember exactly what they did.

"Our daughter is in the garden, and hopefully she won't embarrass us," Patricia sighed before glancing up at Dale, "Think you can lead them there?"

"Hope so, or else I'm hopeless," he grinned, pecking her temple before striking up a conversation with Calum and Jamie.

"So what exactly do you do in your line of work, Dale?" Calum began, quickly saving his wife from having to ask what a dentist was.

"Oh, just the usual – pick at teeth, fill cavities, get gnawed at by screaming kids," he sighed as Jamie's face lit up. "What do you do, if I may ask?"

"I'm a researcher for an author," Calum offered.

"I'm a – er," she winced. What was the Muggle thing that was like an Auror?

"Mam's a police officer," Ainsley saved her, "She's brilliant at it."

"Thank you, Sweetheart," she said, clearly meaning more than what Dale thought.

"Ah – there you are," Dale grinned as he stepped towards a figure who was curled up in a lawn chair by a canopy of trees in the fading sunlight, "Come meet the neighbors!"

The figure got up and set something down on the chair, making her way over to her father. Seamus froze as he saw the familiar face and mildly tamed hair of –

"Hermione Granger?" he asked, watching her blink. She'd put on a deep, dark red dress that was definitely a Gryffindor color, even going to put on that mascara gunk and lipgloss she'd hidden from talks about in the Common Room.

"Seamus Finnigan?" she asked, tilting her head.

"You two know each other?" Calum asked, looking between the two.

"She goes to our school, Da," Ainsley offered, "If you heard o' Harry Potter, you heard o' Hermione Granger. And tha' other kid."

"Ron?" the two asked, still staring at each other before she finally began to ask some questions.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"They're our new neighbors, Honey," Dale said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh!" Jamie suddenly beamed, "Somebody to talk to tonight! Perfect! I'm not a Muggle, see, so I really have no idea what your parents are talking about."

"But what about the police officer thing?" Dale asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes and patted her father's hand, "That was a lie, Dad. Are you an Auror?"

"Yup!" Jamie said proudly.

"One o' the best!" Ainsley grinned.

"See?" she looked back up at her dad, smiling, "I'm helpful."

"Unlike usual," he grinned, ruffling her hair lightly and making her scowl. "Well, let's go tell the news to Patricia, hm? She'll be surprised."

"You three can stay and get to know Hermione better," Jamie offered as she and Calum followed Dale back into the house.

"Merlin, yer face Shay!" Ainsley suddenly laughed as he glared at her, "What? Ye scared o' the girl or somethin'?"

"Yes," he mumbled darkly before looking back at her, "Shouldn' ye be hangin' 'round a library or somethin', Granger?"

She huffed, crossing her arms, "I would be, but Mum made me come out and be social."

"I hate tha'," Blair said, popping her head up and frowning back at Hermione, "Bein' social."

Hermione grinned back at her, "And what do you like to do instead?"

"Bug Shay when he's home, mos'ly," she shrugged, "But if'in he an' Ainsley are gone I'll play in our backyard. We had wifflebees in our ol' backyard."

"Wifflebees?" Hermione repeated.

"She means lightnin' bugs," Ainsley smiled.

"Well, I've got loads of old dolls up in my attic that you can play with if you're interested this year, just ask my mum."

Blair practically lit up, "Thank you! Shay, put me down! I saw a wifflebee!"

Seamus did as he was asked and watched as Blair ran off around the garden. He then came to the horrifying fact that he was left with his older sister and a girl he went to school with. This couldn't possibly end well.

"Shay," Ainsley interrupted his thoughts, "Quit bein' rude."

"How'm I bein' rude?" he huffed, crossing his arms and frowning at her.

"Ye hardly talked nicely tah tha girl," she frowned back, "Ye asked her why wasn' she hidin'. Rude, Mister."

He blinked before grimacing as he realized that his sister was, once again, right, "Err…sorry, Granger, didn' mean tah come off so – "

But she was already grinning at him, "That's alright. Better than you than Cormac McLaggen though."

Seamus felt himself grinning, "Merlin, he's arrogant!"

She laughed, "He really is."

"Thank Merlin I don' know who ye two are talkin' 'bout," Ainsley smirked.

"What House are you in?" Hermione asked.

"Ravenclaw, but the Hat thought 'bout puttin' me in Gryffindor," she shrugged, "Thought 'bout it and decided I wanted an actual intelligent conversation once in a while. Shay's hardly intellectual comp'ny, so Ravenclaw it was."

"Hey!" Seamus yelled, glaring at his sister, who was smirking at him.

"So, Hermione – how's Hogwarts?" Jamie asked as the girl glared across the table at her son, who glared right back at her.

"Oh, it's great!" she beamed suddenly, turning her attention away from Seamus and smiling at her, "I love it there!"

"Hermione talks about it all the time," Patricia smiled, "It seems that's all she's able to talk about the first month of the summer."

"What? Like how she and Potter nearly get kil – nah!" he hissed as she kicked his knee, glaring at him again.

"Killed?" Patricia practically paled, "Hermione?"

"Err – no, kilted," he fidgeted, "It's a new Gryffindor tradition. People randomly kilt others. She and Harry are the only ones who almost get kilted, but somehow escape it."

"And it is a huge secret," Hermione added, making Seamus nod. "Very 'hush-hush.' Nobody else knows about it."

"Oh," Patricia sighed in relief before turning back to Calum. Ainsley, Seamus, Hermione and Jamie shared nervous glances before relaxing a little.

That was the summer between second and third year. In case you got confused. :)