The Winterscapes

The Winterscapes - Chapter Four

Hermione walked to Hogsmeade with Ron walking on one side and Harry on the other. She had a blue velvet cloak fastened around her shoulders--one of last year's Christmas gifts from her parents--and a coin purse tucked inside one of her pockets. She planned on buying a bar of chocolate and having a look around Dervish and Banges to see if there were any new books or anything that looked interesting. The three walked with long strides, their arms swinging, and talked and laughed and looked like they were having a good time. They were--Hermione was, but her neck was getting a bit sore from turning to look at Ron as he regaled her with stories about Trelawney and Divination class, and then back to pay attention to Harry who interrupted with a Quidditch joke. Back and forth and back and forth. She'd been busy lately and was looking forward to wandering around Hogsmeade by herself for a bit. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had a routine for Hogsmeade visits. The village would be overrun by the students gathering in shops and racing around trying to see everything at once, particularly the third years for whom the novelty of leaving school for a day had not worn off. It had worn off some for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, so they did the same thing every Hogsmeade weekend. They would all three go to Honeydukes together, and then Ron and Harry would go to Zonko's while Hermione went to Dervish and Banges. Then they would meet at The Three Broomsticks for butterbeer, and lastly, if there was time, walk to the Shrieking Shack and back.

At Honeydukes they wandered around, looking at the sweets on each shelf and in each barrel, deciding what they wanted. Honeydukes had a very large selection of chocolate, some enchanted like Chocolate Frogs and some not. Hermione finally decided on a triangular shaped bar flavored with honey and almond nougat. Harry bought a package of Sugar Quills and Ron bought Liquorice Wands. Then they split up and agreed to meet in exactly half an hour.

Hermione opened Honeydukes' door and walked out into the street, breathing the September air in deeply. It was crisp and cool, but not enough to turn her ears or the tip of her nose red with cold. She liked the sound of shrieks of laughter in the air. Although she would not want to join in, it was nice to know that there were younger student having fun and not worrying about anything except when they would find the time to do Monday's homework assignments.

She felt like buying something. She had enough money in her purse to buy a book, or stock up on parchment or potion ingredients. She was running low on lacewing flies and dried nettles, both common ingredients that Dervish and Banges was likely to carry. She decided to look around before she decided on anything. The walk from Honeydukes to Dervish and Banges was a short one, and when she got close enough she could see a group of seventh year Slytherins standing in a circle outside the shop. Pansy Parkinson, Madelyn Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, and Draco Malfoy, talking about something, but she had no idea what as they always spoke with hushed voices. She hoped they wouldn't say anything to her when she walked past them. They didn't. They ignored her and she opened the large wooden door, which had a bell attached that gave a ding ding to announce her presence to the shopkeeper.

"Is there anything I can help you with today?" the woman asked.

"No thank you, I'm just looking," Hermione replied, and the shopkeeper went back to stacking bottles of ink on a table in the letter supply section of the store.

Hermione walked to the back wall, which was lined with shelves that displayed jars of potion ingredients. She heard a ding ding at the front of the shop, but she was too busy being morbidly fascinated with the large jar of pickled ash salamanders to turn around and see if it was anyone she knew. There was a little placard attached to the jar in front of her that said that ash salamanders were collected after being spewed out of active volcanoes with rock and ash. She never stopped being surprised by little things in the wizarding world, like how many varieties of pickled salamanders one could find in a shop that didn't even specialize in potion ingredients.

"Granger"

Hermione turned to look. There was Draco, inspecting the little jars of eyes of newt. "Hello, Malfoy."

She tried to go back to looking at salamanders, but they just weren't as interesting as they had been two minutes ago. She watched Draco out of the corner of her eye. Who was watching her back out of the corner of his eye.

"Um. I'm looking for lacewing flies and dried nettles."

Draco didn't move or say anything, so she stepped around him, a bit awkwardly, and walked down to the end of the shelves.

After a few minutes he said, "I guess they're out of lacewing flies and dried nettles. Everyone buys them. There are salamanders, though."

"I'll just send for some from the Apothecary in Diagon Alley."

"Fine with me," he said. "Or you can use some of mine, it's not like it makes a difference when we both turn in the same potion."

"I'm going to look at the books." She slipped away. Dervish and Banges had several tables stacked with books. Most were standards, like Hogwarts, A History and everything ever written by Gilderoy Lockhart. There was some fiction, but most of it was romance written for middle-aged housewives and adolescent girls. Hermione thought they were a waste of time, and she would be embarrassed to be caught reading one anyway. She wandered over to the parchment and quills. So did Draco. She looked at him. He raised his eyebrows. I guess he can't do one at a time, she thought smugly.

"What are you doing here? Weren't you just in here with your friends?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, but I forgot I needed this," he reached over and picked one of the slim, blue books off the table between them. "What are you doing here?"

"Buying a book," Hermione said indignantly. What a stupid question. As if Draco had any right to ask that when he was the one bothering her. She reached over and plucked one of the blue books off the stack and strode over to the counter to buy it. He followed her to the counter to buy his copy. She left as he was handing the shopkeeper some coins. She walked quickly to The Three Broomsticks so he would be left far behind her. For once, Harry and Ron had not spent ages in Zonko's and had beaten her to The Three Broomsticks. They were saving a table.

"Hi," said Harry.

"We ordered you a butterbeer," said Ron.

"Oh, good, thanks," she said. "What did you buy?"

"Nothing, we just looked," said Harry.

"Yeah, Fred and George sent us a package of their stuff for free. Canary creams and a new invention we have to try out. Disappearing ink. When someone asks to borrow some ink to do their homework, you let them use it and by the next day, when it's time to hand in, all their words have disappeared!" said Ron.

"That's horrible," said Hermione.

"Yes, well," said Harry. "We won't actually let anyone use it for homework. What did you buy?"

She held up her book. "It's blue, same shade as my cloak, actually."

"That's nice," said Ron. "What's it called?"

There wasn't a title on the cover, so she opened it up. The paper was very nice. Smooth, and a pleasant pale yellowish color. There weren't any words. "It's a blank book, uh, for writing."

"Oh, that's nice," Harry echoed Ron.

When their butterbeers came the conversation predictably turned to Quidditch. When Fred and George had left Hogwarts, Ron and Seamus Finnigan had replaced them as the Gryffindor team's beaters. Harry was still seeker, and this year he had been made captain.

"So our first match is next weekend. We play Hufflepuff. Then the next weekend it's Slytherin versus Ravenclaw, and the next weekend we play the winner of the Slytherin-Ravenclaw match," said Harry. "Do you want to come and watch?" he said to Hermione.

"Probably, but no promises. I'll come and watch Gryffindor, of course, but if I have a lot of homework I might not be able to come to the matches we're not in-"

Ron grinned. "Don't you want to see Ravenclaw flatten Slytherin?"

Harry started talking before Hermione had thought up a response. "What? Not a chance. As much as I hate to admit it, the Slytherin keeper is miles ahead of the Ravenclaw keeper, and the chasers--"

Ron and Harry had a very animated discussion over the merits of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team over the Slytherin Quidditch team, and Hermione did not have to say much until they left to walk back to Hogwarts.