'What are you two blithering on about?' Ron demanded, raising his head off his arms.
'Girls in bikinis,' said Hermione.
'I'm not sure even that could lift me out of my despair,' said Ron gloomily.
'Despair?' Hermione jumped up, came around the table, grabbed Ron by the shoulders, and kissed him firmly on both cheeks. 'You saved someone's life, Ron Weasley,' she announced. 'I think this makes you a hero. And the fact that you don't even like him, that makes you even more heroic. So there.'
Ron blushed scarlet.
'That's right!' agreed Ginny, swooping down to give Ron a hug as well. Hermione threw her arms around Ron from the other side.
'Hey,' Ron protested feebly, although he looked like he was having a good time. 'Girls! You're messing up my hair!' Harry looked over at them, grinned, got up, and threw himself into the group hug with such enthusiasm that Ron was knocked off his chair and all four of them collapsed to the ground in a giggling heap.
'Well, well,' said an amused voice from the doorway. 'Am I late for the orgy or am I right on time?'
Ginny looked up, flushed from laughing, and clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise. 'Charlie!'
The rest of them looked up as well. It was certainly Charlie Weasley, tousle-haired and tired-eyed. He was wearing his dragon-keeping clothes, and there was a dusty satchel slung across his back. 'Hallo, all,' he said.
Ron hopped to his feet. 'Charlie! How'd you get here? Dragon?'
Charlie rolled his eyes. 'I've told you before, Ron, people don't ride dragons. That's just a cutsey myth. I Apparated, what'd you think?'
Ginny stood up and held out a hand to pull Hermione up after her.
'Did you come because of Draco?' she asked Charlie, looking curious.
Charlie looked blank. 'Because of Draco..?'
There was a step on the stairs and Sirius came into the kitchen, looking disheveled and immeasurably tired. His eyes lit up when he saw Charlie, however. 'Charlie,' he said eagerly, crossing the room to shake Charlie's hand, 'did you get my owl, then? Wonderful, I really need to get back to the Manor and — '
Charlie was shaking his head. 'I didn't get any owl from you. I came because my mum wrote and told me about Dad being elected Minister, and since they had to stay in London for a few days she asked me-' He glanced around again, as if seeing Harry and Hermione for the first time. 'What are you lot doing here, anyway?'
There was a short silence. Harry looked at Ron. Ron looked at Ginny.
Ginny looked at Sirius. Sirius looked at Charlie, and sighed.
'Come on into the living room for a second, Charlie,' he said. 'I'll fill you in on the details.'
'All right,' said Charlie slowly, hefting his satchel onto his back.
Sirius turned to the rest of them. 'I want one of you to sit with Draco, just in case anything happens — nothing will, he's fine, but just as a precaution.'
'I will,' said Ginny immediately.
'Thanks.' Sirius turned back to Charlie. 'Let's go.'
As Charlie followed Sirius out of the room, Hermione heard him say, 'I brought a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey with me.'
Sirius clapped him on the back. 'Bless you, Charlie Weasley.'
'Here's that book I was telling you about,' said Ron, coming into the living room where Hermione was sitting on the overstuffed sofa, her hands wrapped around a mug of tea. Harry was lying on his back on the couch, his head in Hermione's lap, an arm thrown over his face.
Hermione put her mug down and took the proffered book, a musty-looking leather-bound tome with gold stamping on the spine: Lives of the Hogwarts Founders. 'Thanks, Ron.'
Ron sat down in the armchair next to her. 'He asleep?' he asked, jerking his chin towards Harry.
'Mmmph,' said Harry without moving.
'That means no,' said Hermione, opening the book and beginning to scan the pages. 'I think.'
'What are you looking for in the book?' Ron asked curiously.
'Not sure, exactly. Information about their lives…I want to know more about Slytherin and Rowena's relationship, really.'
'Wasn't there anything about that in Slytherin's diary?'
'Yes, but he was pretty mad about the whole thing and just ranted on and on about destiny and fate and rather a lot about lizards.
What was interesting about Slytherin…well, to me, anyway, were the parallells to He Who Must Not Be Named. I mean Voldemort got a lot of his ideas from Slytherin, I think — the Dark Mark, the whole process by which he tried to achieve immortality. I don't know what it means, but-'
'It means that evil is evil, Hermione,' Ron said, a bit bitterly.
'Whatever time period you're in.'
Hermione cocked her head to the side, but couldn't read his expression. 'You all right?'
Before Ron could reply, the living room door opened and Sirius and Narcissa entered. Narcissa's face was nearly hidden by the hood of her cloak, but Hermione could see how anxious she looked. With no warning whatsoever, she swooped down on Ron, and kissed him. For the second time that evening, Ron turned scarlet.
