By Reason Of Birth

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Interlude

When Hermione arrived home that night, it was to find Pigwidgeon waiting for her, fluttering himself about her bedroom. She cringed; looking around she could see a few things that had been knocked down onto the floor.

"Pig!" she cried out, and the hyper owl hooted happily as it flew full-force at her head. She ducked just in time, only to hear a moan from the doorway behind her where Theo and Blaise were, having come to see what all the noise was about.

"Bloody bird's a menace," Theo groaned, rubbing his head with one hand and holding the small bird with the other. "Who does it even belong to?"

Hermione was grinning at her brother, thinking of Ron's same assessment of Errol all those years ago. "Ron," she answered. She took the opportunity of Theo holding Pig to detach the letter that was tied to his leg before taking the bird itself. She put Pig into Maddygene's cage, who awoke from her slumber to give Hermione a resentful 'hoot' before going back to sleep.

"It would figure a Weasley would own a bird like that," Theo muttered condescendingly before sending Hermione an apologetic look. "Sorry," he smiled sheepishly. "Sister or not, the bloke still gets on my nerves."

"Understandable," she replied, her lips quirked into a half-smile. "But the bird was given to him by Sirius."

"I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that Sirius Black is Potter's godfather and Potter lives with him now. All these years, we've had it so wrong," Blaise said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Yeah, Sirius is a good guy. A bit immature sometimes, but his heart's in the right place," Hermione said as she went through her room, straightening everything Pig had knocked over while Theo and Blaise remained in the doorway. "Do you two need anything, or are you just standing there for something to do?" she asked, though she didn't wait for a response as she sat on her bed and opened the letter.

She sighed and shook her head as she read the five words on the parchment, written in Ron's messy handwriting. "We need to talk. Now."

"Looks like I'm going to the Burrow," she commented as she brought the letter to her desk, where she quickly wrote back that she would be there soon. Looking to the two boys in her door frame, she added, "Seriously, why are the two of you still here? Don't you have anything better to do?"

"No, not really," they responded at the same time.

"Why are you going to somewhere called 'The Burrow'?" asked Theo, his brows furrowed in confusion and distaste of the name while she sent her response off with Pig, who had had a bite to eat and some water to ready himself to make the return trip.

"To get into a fight with Ron," she answered matter-of-factly as she pulled out her contact card to let her parents know where she was going and that she would be home by curfew.

"What? Why?" he said, confused as to why someone would go anywhere knowing they were going to get in a fight.

"He's upset with me, and he seems to be in the mood to let it out. It's going to happen the next time I see him, so I might as well go now and get it over with."

"What? Did his letter ask you to come over so he could yell at you?" She handed him the letter and Theo read it over twice before handing it off to Blaise. "How do you know he wants to fight from that?"

"Ron doesn't demand things of people. Plus, he's not too happy about being excluded yesterday, even if it was for good reasons," she answered. "And now that he's had some time to dwell, I bet he's upset about me being related to you, as well. He always was prejudiced against Slytherins."

"That's it, I'm... we're going with you," Theo said, changing his words at Blaise's cough.

"Why? To make things worse?"

"No, to make sure he doesn't hurt you. He has a bit of a temper on him."

"Which will only be made worse if you're there," she argued.

"But then I can redirect it to me, rather than you. There's no way you're going without us."

The two stood there glaring at each other for what seemed like hours. "Oh, come on already. Hermione, we're going with you, and that's all there is to it," Blaise said, trying to stop the contest of who was more stubborn, knowing it could go on all night.

Hermione turned her glare on him and he smirked back. "Or, of course, you can just not go to Weasley's. That would suit us just fine. Though you'd have to spend the rest of the night with us to be sure you don't sneak off to get in this fight you seem to be spoiling for," he informed her.

"I am not spoiling for a fight. I hate fighting. But I'd rather have it over and done with then not show up and have him freak out over that, too."

"Good, then let's go. We're wasting daylight here," Theo said. Both Hermione and Blaise looked at him like he had two heads, but eventually Hermione nodded her head once.

"Fine. I'll side-Apparate you one by one to a clearing near the house." She took Theo first, and they arrived at the spot where she had taken the Portkey to the Quidditch World Cup three years earlier. After making sure he would wait there, she went to the Apparition point in front of the house, where Blaise was waiting for her.

As she walked over to Blaise, she tripped over her feet, plummeting face first to the ground. She put out her hands to soften her landing, but when they hit something solid, it wasn't the hard ground, but Blaise's firm body.

He pulled her up so that her arms were around his neck, placing his own so they circled her waist, holding her tight against him under the guise of holding on tight enough for safe side-Apparation.

After she didn't move her eyes off his face for almost a full minute, he smirked down to her. "Are we leaving or are we going to just stand here? Mind you, I much prefer the latter, but Theo is waiting for us wherever you left him at." His words snapped her out of whatever trance she had been in and her cheeks flushed before she buried her face into his chest so he couldn't see her embarassed face. Before he could make another comment, they disappeared.
When they 'popped' into the clearing, Theo looked at the two, one eyebrow raised as he looked at Blaise's smiling face, Hermione facing the other way. Hermione pulled away from the embrace almost immediately, though Theo noticed her slight hesitation. His attention was caught by the small owl that suddenly flew by at top speed, surprising him with its speed; he had fully expected to be there and gone before the owl had made it home.

"Let's go," Hermione announced, starting towards Theo and the direction the owl had gone in.

"How far are we from Weasley's?"

"Not far," she responded. "When we get there, there is to be no comments on their house, on their family, or about their lack of wealth. These people have treated me like family over the last few years, and you will not be rude to them," she ordered.

"Hermione, we're not Malfoy. Neither Blaise nor I were raised to treat others the way he does. If these people are your friends, then we will treat them as such, but if Weasley thinks he can just sit there and scream at you and we won't do anything about it, then he's delusional."

In a matter of moments, the Burrow was visible through the trees, with the wide space of the garden and the ramshackle house that looked as though it would fall down at any moment. Next to her, both Theo and Blaise gasped, suddenly knowing that Hermione hadn't been wrong to warn them against making fun of the Weasley family home. Ron was nowhere in sight, and so they opted to go up to the house.

They stood at the front door, Theo and Blaise one step behind Hermione as she knocked on it and waited for an answer. When the door opened, Molly's face was the first one they saw before she quickly pulled Hermione into a hug, though the hug was not as warm as she was used to.

"It's so wonderful to see you, dear. And who are these young men with you?" she asked after she pulled away, her eyes taking in Hermione's company.

"Mrs. Weasley, this is my brother Theo, and Blaise Zabini."

"It's nice to meet you, Theo, Blaise," she said, surprising Hermione by merely shaking their hands and not hugging them like was expected of the Weasley matriarch. In fact, if she were not mistaken, there had been a coldness to her voice. A coldness that Hermione had only ever heard before when she spoke of Fleur, and even Harry after the fallout between him and Ginny.

More than anything else, this coldness put Hermione on edge as she looked over to the woman. "Ron wanted to see me," she said, her own voice turning cool as she waited to be invited inside.
Chapter End Notes:

will it shock you if i thank the wonderful lupie for making my fic better and everone who reads and who reviews??? no??? i didn't think so, lol.