smartestone | The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade, Friday evening, June 1996

It had been about six months since Hermione was last in Hogsmeade, and she kind of missed it. There was nothing that she could really name as being something that would inspire this, but it was just the fact that she was kind of home. It didn't matter that she'd not spent a lot of time here, per se, but Hogwarts was right over that way, and she was closer than she had been in a long time.

She couldn't stay there, though, since boarding schools weren't keen on letting ex-students hang out like they were paying to be there. That was okay, though, since she'd probably get more studying in her room above the Three Broomsticks anyway. Instead, she lugged her trunk and Crookshank's carrying case inside and was surprised a minute later when she heard someone call her name.

She was barely even turned around before she was scooped up into a hug by Hagrid, who managed not to crush any ribs as far as she could tell. She was grinning when he finally let her go, but that faded when she saw the bruises on his face and hands. "Hagrid, what happened?" she asked.

He waved it off. "Nothing fer you to worry about. Came to see if yer needed any help 'n setting yerself up out here."

"It's just a room. I think I'll be spending most of it looking at books," Hermione said, because she knew herself well enough.

"I can at least carry your things up for you," he offered, and Hermione didn't have a choice in whether or not he grabbed the heavy trunk to bring it upstairs for her.

As soon as they were inside the room, Hagrid dropped the trunk and said, "Between you and me, Ron an' Harry'll be here any minute."

"They're really not supposed to be doing that," she protested, letting Crookshanks out to wander around. She didn't exactly mind, though. She'd been hoping to see them when she wasn't worried about tests, but at the same time, she didn't want them to get into trouble over her.

"You know them," Hagrid explained, and sat down in a too-small chair that creaked underneath him. "Now you sit down and tell me all about this school o' yours."

She obliged, sitting and talking to him about her classes and Rikku and saying that while she was sure the gremlins weren't really dangerous, they probably wouldn't appreciate being kept as pets. Hagrid ducked any questions about himself or his activities, though, which worried her just as long as it took for the knock to be heard at the door.

Hermione practically bounced out of her seat to answer it, though there didn't seem to be any one there. At least, she would have believed there wasn't if she didn't know to look down. Ron and Harry had outgrown the invisibility cloak enough that their feet were sticking out from under it.

Harry was the first to pull the cloak off, so he was the first to get glomped when Hermione knew where he was to hug him, followed quickly by Ron. He patted her kind of awkwardly on the back like he wasn't sure what to do with her. "I'm very glad to see you both but you shouldn't be here!" she greeted them, grinning broadly.

"We had to," said Harry.

"Yeah, we couldn't let you spend your whole weekend alone with the books," agreed Ron. "You'd be right scary by Monday."

Hermione wasn't going to mention that she''d been studying the whole week straight.

Hagrid excused himself to let the kids talk amongst themselves, and as soon as he was gone Hermione asked, "What happened to him?"

Ron and Harry looked at each other. "Funny you should ask," Harry said, and explained just who Grawp was and why this was a bad idea.

Hermione listened, her jaw dropping further as the story went on. "He's lost his mind," she decided. "He can't keep a giant in the forest. Someone could get hurt."

"That's never stopped him before," said Harry. "There was the dragon, the hippogriff..."

"Harry was gone so long meeting Hagrid's brother he missed me winning the Quidditch championship for Gryffindor," Ron said, using an awkward segue because he seemed to be dying to tell her about it.

She listened to that, too, with Ron embellishing details (she knew because that was when Harry would roll his eyes) and going on far too long with the story so that she was almost bored, but she hadn't been able to see him play even once. She feigned interest pretty well, she thought. Finally Harry must have become just as bored, or at least bored of Ron's version of events, because he asked, "Hermione, did you bring any more of the socks with you?"

"A few," she said. "I had exams last week and didn't have a lot of time." Hermione paused, internally debating whether to ask whether they knew that they weren't just socks. Well, they weren't supposed to be. There was a definite difference between Alec's handiwork and Hermione's, and it wasn't just because Hermione had given up on trying to not make them socks, at which point they began to look more like dildo cozies. "What did you need them for, anyway?"

Harry grinned and said, "It was the twins' idea."

"After that first package you sent, things were just lying around, so they decided to get on Umbridge's nerves by bewitching them to walk up and back in front of her door during class," Ron supplied.

Hermione's eyes went really wide at the mental image of Umbridge being visually assaulted by a dildo cozy parade. "Oh, dear."

"And after word got out what they really were," Harry said, and that answered that question, "they started doing it every day. Umbridge started confiscating them, and then they'd start climbing out of her desk drawers at random points in time. An entire first year class got detention for laughing."

Hermione was trying very hard not to giggle, because this was an authority figure, and she was in charge of the school in Dumbledore's absence.... but at the same time, she'd never met the woman and she hated that cow.

"And then," Ron continued, "when Fred and George left, they told Peeves to give her hell. So Peeves took it upon himself to start throwing a few spares at her during dinner. McGonagall had to excuse herself."

"That's terrible," Hermione said, but that was definitely a giggle escaping.

"It really was," said Harry, still smiling from ear to ear.

After a moment, Ron asked slowly, "Where did you learn how to make those?" It sounded like he really didn't want to know the answer.

"It wasn't me," she said, both crediting and blaming Alec for it entirely.

When it was very late, Harry finally said, "We should probably be getting back before Filch starts making his rounds."

"Thank you for visiting," Hermione told them. "I've missed you."

Ron rubbed the back of his neck and said, "Well." That was it. She hadn't expected eloquence, though.

She said her goodbyes to them at the door, watched them disappear under the cloak, and closed the door behind them, feeling better than she had about a lot of things.

[Not open for interaction, but OOC comments welcome. NFB for distance and 1996.]

The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade, Friday evening, June 1996

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