Dear Harry,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I hope this letter gets to you this year, along with the presents of course. I can't believe I'm going another year without seeing you on your birthday!
Hedwig's been brilliantly quiet, so my mum and dad haven't suspected anything at all, which is very good. That sort of explains one of my gifts, I suppose. If you followed the envelope's instructions, you'd have opened this before the presents. I have left a little note inside of each parcel explaining why I got you them, as I didn't want to spoil them all for you.
I know we've not had much of the holidays yet, but I already really miss you. Fingers crossed the rest of the Summer goes quickly!
Enjoy your birthday!
Love,
Hermione
xxx
P.S. Open the presents from biggest to smallest.
P.P.S. Mind the largest present - it's fragile.
***********
Harry read the letter for what must have been the millionth time since his birthday four weeks before then. He could remember clearly opening the presents she had gotten him:
Following Hermione's instructions, he had opened the largest parcel first. Under the paper, he had found a baby blue coloured box. Carefully opening it, Harry found a delicious round chocolate cake with scarlet icing all over it. On the top, the words -
Happy Birthday, Harry!
~ Love Hermione
- had been carefully piped in banana flavoured yellowy-gold icing, along with a yellow orb which Harry took to be a smiley face and a white blob he assumed was meant to be Hedwig. The note inside of the box had confirmed only one of his assumptions,'I'm so sorry the pictures are bad, I've never iced anything before! The yellow one is meant to be a Golden Snitch and the white thing at the bottom was Hedwig, but they didn't turn out too great. I made the cake the other day, when my parents were at work. I'm not sure what they'd say if they knew. It's actually quite fun, breaking the rules."
Harry had chuckled at her whilst opening the next present. He found a brand new pair of leather Seeker's gloves with a note that read,'I noticed that your pair were getting quite small, so I thought you could do with some new ones. They're supposed to be better at conserving heat, but I'm not sure how good they'll be.'
The next present was a brush about the size of Harry's hand. For a moment, Harry was rather confused. Why on earth would he need a hair brush? Maybe Hermione was trying to tell him something...
But then Harry had read the note,'It's not for you, it's for Hedwig. May you enjoy her grooming as much as she does.' This time, Harry laughed at himself for being so thick.
The penultimate gift was rectangular in shape and reasonably solid. Harry guessed it was a book. He was correct. Harry did not, however, guess that it was a chess book. Upon seeing it's name and author, Harry had laughed so loudly that Vernon had yelled at him from downstairs. The book was titled: A Beginners Guide to Chess by Anne Ight. Ingenious, Harry had thought to himself, Completely mad. The note Hermione had left with it said,'I apologise for the pun, but I had a look through it and it seemed rather helpful. I hope that it enables you to beat Ron at least once.'
Finally, Harry had unwrapped a small bottle with a cork in the top. Inside the bottle, he noticed, was a tiny curled up piece of parchment. On the bottle's side was a sticker saying,'Open when all seems lost,' in Hermione's swirly handwriting. He slipped it into his pocket before reading the note,'If you ever feel lost or alone, just open the bottle for advice. There is, of course, a little bit of magic to it. See if you can figure it out. Have a wonderful birthday!' After that, Harry really did.
***********
"Thanks!" Harry called to the innkeeper as he opened the door to his room. Exhausted, he dropped his trunk onto the floor by his bed, leaving the door open. He wasn't going to be expelled for blowing up his aunt and he now faced three Dursley-free weeks. For the first time in ages, Harry felt lucky.
"Harry?" A voice came from the door.
Harry turned around, startled, and moved towards the figure.
"Oh, Harry, it is you!"
"Hermione?"
"It's so good to see you!" Hermione beamed, and then, she did something she had never done before, and kissed him on the cheek.
"Hermione!" Harry protested, growing very red in the face, but no one was watching. For what it was worth, Hermione looked rather pleased with herself. And, though he didn't say it, Harry was very pleased with her too.
"Are you all right? I heard about what happened with your aunt, and they simply can't expel you! You didn't do it on purpose, we all know that, and-"
"-they aren't expelling me, Hermione." Harry chuckled,"Fudge said it was usual to accidentally do magic when faced with strong emotions at a young age, so they understand."
Hermione looked relieved,"Well, thank goodness for that."
"But," Harry frowned,"why are you here?"
"Oh...well, you see, I ran away too."
"You what?" Harry asked incredulously. Then, realising he had done the exact same thing, he calmed down,"Why?"
"My parents - well, they didn't want me going back to Hogwarts this year. Or ever again. I told them they had no right to stop me and my dad threatened to burn all of my school things if I tried to go back. So, last night I got out my trunk, packed a few spare clothes, took all of the Muggle money I had been saving up for the future and caught the Knight Bus here."
Harry stared at her open-mouthed,"Why didn't you write to me?"
"Because," Hermione sat on Harry's bed,"I think Mum and Dad knew I was writing to someone from school. Yesterday, they locked the window and hid the key. Hedwig couldn't get in."
"I'm sorry." Harry plopped down next to her.
"It's fine, really. I left them a note. I'm just not sure where I'll go next Summer."
"I'd offer you a place at mine, but I don't reckon that'll go down too well with the Dursleys..."
Hermione smiled at him,"I suppose I'll just have to face them, won't I?" Looking anxious, she changed the subject,"Do you need help unpacking?"
"Oh, no. I've not got much. Just some clothes and school stuff." Harry explained, walking over to his trunk and unclicking the locks. He pulled out Hedwig's brush, the jar of Mr. Spindle's Lick "O" Rish Spiders that Stan had given him on the Knight Bus and the photo of his parents he had gotten from Hagrid in his first year. Harry stared sadly at the photo, watching his parents dance happily. He hadn't noticed Hermione standing behind him.
Placing her chin on Harry's shoulder, she breathed,"She's beautiful and he's you."
Harry nodded and set the picture on his bedside table. He let Hermione brush Hedwig's feathers as he offered her a Lick "O" Rish Spider.
***********
The pair spent long, sunny days exploring the shops and eating under the brightly coloured umbrellas that dotted the cafés. Hermione (who had - of course - already completed all of the homework that had been set for the Summer) helped Harry with essay after essay and diagram after diagram until they were all completed to a reasonably high standard. They would make each other tell the story of how they had run away again and again, Hermione trying to make sense of the black dog Harry had seen and Harry trying to make sense of the change in Hermione's parents' behaviour. Then, the pair visited the shops to buy the things they needed for school. They had both grown a lot over the holidays, and needed new grey Gryffindor jumpers. Both of them also bought red and gold knitted Gryffindor Quidditch jumpers, which Hermione vowed to wear to all of Harry's matches in the future.
Surprisingly, a week before September 1st, Ron wrote to Harry to tell him that he would be going to Diagon Alley the following Tuesday - the last day of the holidays - to get his school things if Harry wanted to come. He replied explaining to Ron that he and Hermione had already been there for weeks and had bought all their things, but they'd meet him in the Leaky Cauldron anyway.
The day before Ron was meant to arrive, Hermione decided that she wanted a pet. Harry was surprised by how much money she had saved up and converted into galleons, so happily went along with her, eyes wide and jaw dropping at the many creatures inside of the pet shop. As soon as she went in, Hermione fell in love with a fat, fluffy, ginger-furred, flat-faced cat that was apparently half Kneazle.
"I was going to get an owl, but I really want-" she read the name on the cat's cage,"-Crookshanks. That name suits you, doesn't it?" Hermione stroked the grumpy-looking ball of fur and handed some money to the old witch behind the counter,"Thank you!" Hermione beamed brightly.
"Come on," Harry said,"It's getting late. We should head back."
"All right." Hermione picked Crookshanks up and carried him all the way back to Harry's room.
"Goodnight, Hermione."
"Goodnight, Harry."
Harry could have sworn he saw a flash of silver on Hermione's right wrist before she buried it under Crookshanks.