Ron reached out and caught Pigwidgeon in his hand. 'No jumping in the coffee, Pig,' he said, grinning at the twittering little owl. 'Ginny doesn't like it.'
'Whereas you love owl-flavored coffee,' said Ginny, making a face at Ron. Then she turned back to Hermione, who had her chin propped on her hand and was staring dreamily off into space. 'What does Harry say, Hermione? Is everything all right?'
'Of course it is, he's fine,' said Hermione. 'And he said to say hi to you.'
Ginny flushed very slightly. She still retained the vestiges of her terrible crush on Harry, although she was nevertheless quite genuinely happy for Hermione. That was the thing about Ginny, thought Hermione, she was such a very nice person that it would be impossible to dislike her, although the two girls had never been close. Ginny had always seemed to Hermione to be a girl's girl —
more interested in clothes and boys than Hermione could imagine herself being, although her year at Beauxbatons had invested her with an appealing new gravity.
'Well, tell him hi from me when you write back,' said Ginny, and became very interested in cleaning up the coffee Pigwidgeon had spilled.
Ron was scanning his own letter from Harry. 'He says Fleur's a student there,' he said. 'I think Bill did tell me something about that, actually. I'd forgotten.'
'Are she and Bill still together?' Hermione asked.
Ron shrugged. 'I dunno. They're on, they're off, it's hard to tell. I think they're off at the moment, actually.'
Hermione scowled. She did not like the idea of an unattached Fleur being anywhere within ten miles of Harry. Or Draco. Although Draco was part veela himself and could probably fight her off better than Harry could. Also, it was none of her business what Draco did, she thought to herself, but really…he could do better than Fleur, she just knew he could.
With a mental shrug, she picked up the second letter Pigwidgeon had brought her. It was tied with a black velvet ribbon and her name was written in a slanting, almost-familiar hand. As she read it through, her mouth opened in surprise. 'Well, that's odd!' she exclaimed.
'What's odd?' asked Ginny.
'It's from Viktor Krum,' said Hermione.
Now Ron looked up as well.
'He's in London,' said Hermione. 'He wants to meet me for coffee at the Leaky Cauldron. He's staying there for a few days. He says he has something important to tell me.'
'Oh, Harry's going to love that,' said Ron, grinning.
'Don't be silly, Ron,' said Hermione, putting down the letter with a frown. 'I haven't even seen Viktor in two years. And last I heard, he had a girlfriend.'
'Are you sure he doesn't want to meet you so he can tell you he loffs you again?' said Ron teasingly.
'Quite sure,' said Hermione, still frowning. 'Well, I wouldn't mind seeing Viktor…and Ginny, didn't you say you wanted to go shopping in London? We could go together.'
'Sure,' said Ginny, and Ron added quickly, 'I have to go to Diagon Alley anyway to get a kit for my new broom. We can all go.'
'Okay,' said Hermione. 'Just let me write a quick letter first.'
She ran upstairs to the spare room she was staying in. Although the Weasleys hadn't moved out of the Burrow when Fred and George's joke shop turned out to be so successful, they had added a number of extra rooms. From the outside, the house now looked more like a lopsided birthday cake than ever. Hermione's room was one of the new ones, and she liked it very much: it was round, with a stained-glass oriole window that depicted a weasel sleeping on a rock in the sun.
She sat down at the desk, took out a piece of paper, and started to write Dear Harry… and stopped. She wasn't very good at writing love letters, but she wanted to be a bit more affectionate than 'dear'. Especially if he was hanging around with Fleur. Couldn't hurt to remind him exactly whose Harry he was. She tried Darling Harry, but that looked stupid. Then she tried Harry, my love, but that was awful, and she scrunched the whole letter up into a ball and threw it on the floor. She tried again, with a new piece of paper, Dearest Harry…
Well, that looked all right. She scribbled the rest of the letter quickly, wrote a quick note to Draco, and bolted out of the room, nearly colliding with Ron on the stairs. 'Hermione! Slow down!'
'Ron, can I borrow Pig?' she said quickly. 'I'm sorry I stepped on your toe,' she added, as an afterthought.
'I just sent Pig off to Fred and George with a letter. But you can borrow my mum's owl. Hey, Hermione, what's that?'
'What's what?'
'That,' said Ron, and put his hand on her neck, where the collar of her shirt ended. It took her a moment to realize that he was fingering the thin gold chain around her throat. 'You don't usually wear jewelry.'
'Oh,' she said. 'This,' and drew out the pendant that hung on the end of the chain. 'It's Draco's Epicyclical Charm,' she said, a little self-consciously. 'He gave it to me.'
Ron goggled at her. 'Isn't that a little weird?' he said. 'I mean, what if you dropped it, or forgot it somewhere, or…'
'Ron!' Hermione glared at him. 'Like I'd ever do that. Anyway, Dumbledore put some charms on it, so it can't be lost or misplaced or damaged. I can't even take it off, and no one else can take it off me except either Dumbledore or Draco himself. It's charmed that way.'
'I think you should just have given it to Dumbledore,' said Ron, eyeing the Charm with mistrust. 'Or Draco should have kept it.
Can't he cart his own nasty little lethal object around with him?'
