Hey folks! Still here! Thanks for sticking around *hearteyes*

By the time they all met up again at Flourish and Blotts, Fred and George were mysteriously firework-less, apparently having found a way to stash them where their mother wouldn't find out about them. Hermione considered mentioning it to her but then – you sound a lot like Mum – perhaps she'd leave them be.

Besides, there was something much more pleasant to be occupying her thoughts.

"Calmly please, ladies!" The man trying to control the mass of women trying to get closer to Gilderoy Lockhart was desperately trying to be heard (or even seen, he was a tiny creature who was wearing an enormously tall top hat, possibly in an attempt to make up for it) above the crowd as Hermione, Harry and Ron joined the Weasleys and Hermione's parents. A woman with a large handbag spun around, and not-quite-accidentally knocked his hat off of his head, inciting a snigger from somewhere to Hermione's left.

She turned and caught the gaze of a young girl, eyes wide even as she supressed a grin, looking especially tiny holding a standard potions cauldron. Some part of Hermione noted that she'd been expecting a lanky girl, Ron's build rather than the twins' stockier frames.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, clapping her hand over her mouth in sudden guilt, "I completely forgot to introduce myself!" She'd been so busy worrying about her parents meeting the Wealseys that she'd totally missed that there was one Weasley in particular that she hadn't met yet. Ginny grinned, a little shyly.

"It's okay, Hermione, it's not like I don't know who you are."

So, her resemblance to the twins went beyond just build, Hermione thought, laughing.

"Yes, I guess we're probably past first-name introductions. I already knew from Ron's letters that we'd get on."

Ginny grinned. "I thought so too. I liked you as soon as I realised you were annoying Ron." She stopped, eyes widening. "I mean-!"

Hermione winced and then laughed awkwardly. "Don't worry, it's not a secret that I annoy your brother. I know what you mean."

"I like annoying him too!" Ginny added, her cheeks starting to flush.

"Everyone has to have a hobby!" Hermione agreed.

Oh God. This was going terribly. She should know by now that she was bad at making friends. Especially girls. Especially Weasleys. She should have prepared better, gone into this with a plan. Was Ron telling everyone she was annoying, still? Ginny was talking again – or babbling:

"Hobbies! Yes! Do you like Quidditch?"

Hermione's heart sank, and from the look on the other girl's face, it showed. Before she had a chance to say anything else, they were interrupted.

"It can't be Harry Potter!"

Oh. God. Gilderoy Lockhart is heading towards us! He was even more startlingly pretty in real life than in his dustjacket photos, his golden hair and sparkling blue eyes set off wonderfully by his flowing robes. Hermione felt the blood rush to her face as he reached forward and grabbed Harry, close enough that she could feel the air move from his swiping motion, even as Harry splayed out his arms to try and slow himself down, knocking them accidentally against both girls. When she'd recovered enough to register that he'd gone again, she turned to see Ginny had changed colour too, the Weasley blush even more fantastically bright with her long red hair. Ah. We might have one thing in common, she thought. Somehow, seeing another girl affected by Lockhart like that calmed Hermione slightly, and she regained the ability to speak.

"Gosh, he is… something, isn't he?" Well. Almost regained her ability to speak.

"Yeah," Ginny breathed, her eyes fixed on the pair of them as they posed for photos, the flashes reflecting magnificently off of Lockhart's dazzling smile even as they seemed to be almost blinding Harry.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the former said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time!

"When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography — which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge —"

Handsome and generous! Hermione felt her heart flutter in her chest. The crowd applauded again.

"He had no idea," Lockhart continued, giving Harry a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

By the time Hermione was done processing this information, her eyes wide and her mouth gaping open and shut like a fish's, Harry had returned to them, and was depositing his newly acquired collection of Lockhart books into Ginny's cauldron.

"You have these," he mumbled to her, "I'll buy my own."

Hermione saw her own expression mirrored in Ginny's, watched the younger girl's eyes fix on her friend. Wait…

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?"

Hermione hated having her thoughts interrupted, particularly when she was on the brink of putting something together and particularly particularly when the one doing the interrupting was Draco Malfoy.

"Famous Harry Potter," he continued. "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."

"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!"

Hermione's cutting remark leapt back into her throat in surprise as she turned to Ginny; it was remarkable to see so much fury so pouring out of someone so small. It made Hermione think of Tinkerbell.

"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" drawled Malfoy.

Ginny's face practically glowed with her blush, illuminating the idea that Hermione had almost had a grip on just before Malfoy interrupted.

Not Lockhart, then.

"Oh, it's you," said Ron, appearing at Hermione's side and looking at Malfoy with the same face she had seen him reserve for troll bogies. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," retorted Malfoy. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all of those."

Hermione knew Ron well enough by now to have grabbed the back of his robes before he could leap at Malfoy, and with Harry's help she managed to hold him back, although she could practically feel the heat of his anger radiating off of him.

"Ron!" said Mr Wealsey, struggling over with Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well — Arthur Weasley." It was Mr Malfoy. He stood with his hand on Draco's shoulder, sneering in just the same way.

"Lucius," said Mr Weasley, nodding coldly.

Hermione felt the older Malfoy's gaze slide over each of them in turn, pausing on Harry and then herself. She shivered.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Mr Malfoy. "All those raids... I hope they're paying you overtime?"

He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.

"Obviously not," Mr Malfoy said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"

Mr Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Ginny, although they had both raised the stakes.

"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," he said.

Hermione was torn between being proud at Mr Weasley's response and wishing desperately that he would just leave it be, so they could get out of there.

"Clearly," said Mr Malfoy. His pale eyes strayed to Hermione's parents, who were watching apprehensively, and she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Everything about the way he was looking at them screamed danger.

"The company you keep, Weasley... and I thought your family could sink no lower –"

There was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr Weasley had thrown himself at Mr Malfoy, knocking him backwards into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads. There was a yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from Fred or George, Hermione didn't bother to ascertain which, as she instinctively ran to her parents.

Mrs Weasley was shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!" as the crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over

"Gentlemen, please — please!" cried the assistant, and then, louder than all —

"Break it up, there, gents, break it up —"

Hagrid was wading toward them through the sea of books. In an instant, he had pulled Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy apart. Mr Weasley had a cut lip and Mr Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. He was still holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.

"Here, girl — take your book — it's the best your father can give you —"

Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop. Hermione felt her father gently squeeze her hand and looked down to realise she held one of each of her parents in a vice-like grip.

"Sorry," she murmured, relaxing her grasp, even as they each shook their heads to dismiss her apology. Her heart was still thundering in her chest as she heard Hagrid's voice, as if through water:

"Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," he said, "rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that — no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter — bad blood, that's what it is" bad blood? "— come on now — let's get outta here."

They were outside, and Hermione was still holding onto her parents hands, albeit gentler now, as they hurried up the street. She could feel them shaking. It's ruined, it's all ruined.

"A fine example to set for your children!" Mrs Weasley's fury was tangible, "brawling in public… what Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought —"

"He was pleased," said Fred. "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report — said it was all publicity —"

Hermione's head snapped around to look at him, sure he had to be lying. He met her gaze briefly, straight-faced.

"Nonsense," his mother muttered as they headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, and then she too fell into silence. The group stayed subdued as they said their goodbyes.

"So sorry again for… that," Mrs Weasley said to Hermione's parents.

"No! Of course not! We appreciate- I mean," Hermione's mother paused and glanced at her husband, "We know that it was partly because of us, being there and –"

"You had as much right to be there as anyone else!" Mr Weasley suddenly burst out, his tone showing he'd not quite gotten rid of his anger.

Hermione's throat felt tight.

"More, probably," said Fred.

"Yeah, you're Hermione's parents – raising a prodigy ought to be a V.I.P pass for bookshops." George agreed.

"The Malfoys are prats," Ron added, looking at them earnestly.

Mrs Weasley, sent him a warning look for language but didn't disagree. In fact, Hermione saw the whole clan agree in unison, Percy muttering something suspiciously like "Hear, hear" under his breath, and Ginny nodding her head so hard her hair flew into her face.

She heard a choked laugh and was surprised to discover it was her own. She glanced at her parents to see that they too were smiling, somewhat bemused.

"Well, we appreciate that sentiment," her father said warmly, and moved to shake Mr Weasley's hand. Mr Weasley pulled him into a full bear hug, which her father managed to survive with at least a little dignity. Mrs Weasley did the same to her mother and herself, and then Hermione was left to say goodbye to her friends.

"No need to cry, Hermione, we'll be seeing each other again in a couple of weeks," George said.

"I'm not crying!" She said, checking with her hands to make sure.

He grinned.

"Well, good. Don't think you're letting anyone keep you away from watching us get back at Malfoy this year. It's going to be spectacular." Fred's smile turned slightly manic as he ended his sentence.

"I'm… concerned."

"Aren't we all," Harry said, looking at the twins sideways. He gave her a brief hug. "See you soon, Hermione."

"Yeah, see you," Ron half-hugged her, his hand touching her shoulder briefly before he pulled away. Honestly. Ginny hesitated, and then seemed to shake it off before deciding to show her brother how it was done, pulling Hermione into a full-frontal hug, her squeeze surprisingly strong for someone so small.

"I can't wait to see you again at Hogwarts," she said, earnestly, "where we can both carry on with that hobby we have in common."

Hermione laughed, even as the boys shared confused looks, "It's a plan."

As she walked away with her parents, she looked over her shoulder one more time, and smiled. A plan. She'd see them all soon again.

I feel like we've been pre-Hogwarts for approximately a billion years now. I'm hoping I'll be able to get a bit more momentum with the writing of this fic once we get back to Hogwarts and hopefully you won't have to wait so long for updates! [pause for cheers]. Just wanted to say thank you again for reading, and favouriting and commenting and generally being lovely. I appreciate it more than I can tell you.