82 Invitation
Hermione came over to see what was taking the boys so long, along with Ginny and her cauldron full of books.
As a first year, Ginny already had to purchase several books, since most of them would be used till the fifth year, and with Lockhart's insistence on everyone buying his complete collection, the poor girl could barely lift the cauldron.
"Good to see you, Hermione. And who might this be?" Ben said, tilting his head at the cute redhead.
The poor girl, who had been following Hermione, only hoping to get a few more glimpses at Harry's deep emerald eyes, was taken aback when she suddenly saw another charming face so up close.
While his eyes weren't emerald green like Harry's, they stared at her with great intrigue, as if she were the only interesting thing around. He was quite tall and as she looked up at him; the sunlight shined through his long hair, illuminating his face in a soft glow. Ginney stood frozen, like a doe in the headlights, too mesmerised to introduce herself. [Img]
"I thought you knew everything? She's Ron's sister, Ginny." Hermione said saltily. She'd been like this with Ben since the results came out, complaining that it was unfair since he could see the future.
"Oh, I know a lot of things, but I still can't understand how Ron ended up with a face like that while his sister is this cute," he said, pointing at both the siblings and their faces went red, albeit for different reasons.
"Ey, what's that supposed to mean?" Ron protested.
"Just that you're different, one might say unique, despite the obvious similarities. Here, have this honey nut treat," Ben said as he pulled out a bunch of what were essentially Skyrim Snicker bars from under his robes and passed one to everyone.
"Here, and let me take care of that for you," he said, passing one to Ginny and taking the heavy cauldron from her.
He then pulled out his lightning wand from his storage space under the cover of his robes. Hermione seemed like she wanted to stop him, but Ben was swift with his spell-casting.
He waved the wand at the cauldron, and muttered, "relevo". The cauldron and its contents flashed dimly for a moment, and then returned to their previous appearance.
"There, light as a feather," he said, lifting the cauldron with his pinky to show as proof.
"Ben! You're going to get into trouble. We're not allowed to do magic outside of school," said Hermione chiding him.
"I'm not gonna get into trouble, Hermione. Unless you go tattling," He said, narrowing his eyes at her.
"I won't, but it's the ministry. Surely they will find out." She said as a matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, that's not how it works or I would surely be expelled by now," Ben said with a chuckle.
"Don't tell me you've been breaking the law the whole summer?" Hermione asked, shocked.
"Fuuf, it's a stupid law, Hermione, and everybody does it. The ministry can only trace whether a spell is being cast near an underage wizard and not who's casting it. It could be any of these hundreds of adult wizards around us," Ben replied, revelling in the shocked look on her face.
Hermione was the smartest witch of her age, the key word being her age. It had only been a year since she got introduced to the Wizarding World and had yet to understand its inner workings.
But being as smart as she was, quickly realised that only muggle-born students who lived in the muggle world would have to strictly follow this law. She looked over at Ron to see if it was true.
"Well, mum and dad are quite strict about the 'no magic outside school' rule, but - Fred and George use their wands whenever mum's not looking and - they've never got in trouble with the ministry," said Ron.
"But-that's not fair-"
"It's not? I think it's quite fair," said Ben, stopping Hermione from going on a rant.
"How is it fair if I can't use my wand without getting into trouble and you can?"
"And I can't watch tele or use a computer, but you don't see me complaining," Ben replied.
"What's a commute-her?" Ron asked but was ignored.
"That's not the same-"
"Oh, but it is. You live in the muggle world and get to enjoy muggle technology. I live in the wizarding world and get to enjoy magical conveniences. Seems pretty fair to me."
"But muggle-borns are part of the wizarding world too-"
"They are, and that's why they must follow the wizarding law to safeguard the statute of secrecy." Hermione didn't look convinced, but before she could come up with more ways of calling him a hypocrite, Ben put a stop to this discussion.
"Hey, before my mam comes looking for me, I wanted to ask if you guys would like to come over this week, it's been incredibly boring at the cottage."
"Will that be alright with your parents?" Harry asked, looking a little unsure.
"OH, they'll be happy to have you guys over, and I have something really cool to show you guys," he said, trying to sound mysterious.
"You should come over too, Hermione. We can continue our talk then," He said, giving a piece of paper with his address to her. "It should be easy to spot a Medieval-style cottage amid all the urban muggle housing," He told her.
"You can come along too, Ginny. We've lots of baby rabbits now and they are so unbelievably cute." He said to Ginny, handing the cauldron back to her with a smile.
"Oh hey, you have the 1972 issue of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration," he said, lifting the old, battered book from her cauldron.
Ginny suddenly felt embarrassed and blood rose to colour her ears red. Malfoy Sr. had already made fun of her in the store and now-
"I've been looking for this for a while. It has a few extra spells that are- interesting, to say the least, because of the war, you know."
"Mind if I borrow this, Ginny?" he asked, pulling out a new copy from under his robes. "You can use mine for a while."
Ginny looked shocked. For a second, she thought he was going to make fun of her, but-
"It has my transfiguration notes in it too, and get this, a few of my favourite hexes," he said, flipping through the book and showing her some really descriptive illustrations along with the hexes at the end pages of the book.
Ginny's doe eyes gained a sharp glint when she saw the gruesomely funny illustrations. There was a squat, toad-like woman with a horn for a tongue in one illustration, insect feelers on top of her head in another and alarmingly long toenails in a third one.
On the second page, an abnormally long-nosed man with greasy long hair stood with his robes lifted as he stared at his reversed knees in shock. In one illustration, he had lost all his hair, while in another pus erupted from his abnormally long nose. But the funniest had to be the one with bat-shaped bogeys escaping his nose.
"So, do we have ourselves a deal?" he asked again, and Ginny nodded, still staring at the book.
"Great, I'll see you guys later," He said, putting the new book into her cauldron. He had already stored the old book along with the diary hidden under it in his storage space.
"You do know how to use the Floo, right? Just shout, 'Brown Family Cottage' and you'll be there," he said, waving them goodbye as he ran inside the store, after all his job was done.
"How does he fit everything in his pockets?" Ron asked, looking at Ben's vanishing silhouette.
"I don't know?" said Harry, touching the pouch hanging around his neck.
"Umh-these treats are really good," he said, licking the skewer. "Are you gonna eat that, Ginny?" he said, pointing at the skewer in her hand, which she quickly pulled away from him.
"Don't even think about it."
-END OF CHAPTER-
Time for a poll, my fellow apes.
Vote for the female lead of your choice.[Images included]
Cho Chang
Marietta Edgecombe (Seriously?)
Daphne Greengrass
Ginny Weasley
Fleur Delacour
Hermione Granger
Luna Lovegood
Nymphadora Tonks
Andromeda Tonks (Uuhhh)
Bellatrix Lestrange (Crazy? I Likey!)
Narcissa Malfoy (MILF?)
Minerva McGonagall (GILF?)
Maeve O'Malley (Sweet Home Alabama) JK
Madame Maxime (Mommy?)
Lady Death herself. (Can you die for her though?)
Shadow Clone Jutsu? (Love thyself?)
Patil Sisters? (Twins eh?)
Norene (You Sickos!!)
Lydia (She's swoooorn to carry our burdens)
Flame Atronach (You like to play with fire, huh?)
Umbridge? (Just buy a pie bro!)
This is just so I get a feel for my audience, also:
Harem??
NO HAREM!!!?
One is good, two is better (can't say no to a 3sum), three is stretching it and four is too much!?
If you likey-likey, helpy-helpy Poor-Dreamy on patrey-patrey/DreamyApe. Toodle-oo!
