Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 19 Happy Birthday, Harry

In the next four days before Harry's birthday, Hermione learned the reason why Blaise had barged in on her and Malfoy--- both of their mothers had been arrested, along with three other Death Eaters when they were following a lead on something or other; just what exactly, the Order had yet to find out. She heard all about it right from two of the arresting aurors. Harry and Ron were ecstatic that Malfoy was starting to get his comeuppance. She pretended to be just as happy, but she was really worried about Malfoy and what he would do to get her back.

It seemed as though she wasn't the only one with this thought (minus the worry) as she had walked into a conversation between Lupin and Tonks on the subject. She also wondered what Blaise had said about what he had seen. Malfoy had obviously obliviated Pansy, but she wasn't so sure that was going to be the case with his friend.

Another thing that had happened over the four days was that Ron was paying more and more attention to her. She had known for a while that he had a crush on her, but as she didn't feel the same (until that night at Slughorn's party, she actually had kind of had a crush on Cormac McLaggen, but there was no way anyone was going to find that out; now, while she was sleeping with Malfoy, and she worried for his well-being, she still didn't really like him all that much.) she had hoped that it would take its course and dissipate. It didn't look like that was going to happen anytime soon. She just hoped he wouldn't ask her out, because she would have to turn him down and she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

After breakfast on the thirty first, Hermione and Ron went with Harry to the Ministry so he could take his apparation test, which he just passed. He had left a toenail behind, but thankfully the examiner didn't notice. The wait for the test took so long that by the time his paperwork had been processed it was time for lunch. They went to eat and afterwards caught a movie.

Ron had never been to a movie theater before and his two friends were having a hard time controlling their embarassment at his gaping. After all, pretty much every seventeen year old muggle had been in a theater at least once on their lifetime. When he couldn't stop talking through the movie, Hermione had been forced to cast a wandless silencio on him. It really was turning out to be the most useful spell she could do wandless.

After the movie they went back to Grimmauld Place where Mrs. Weasley had organized a small surprise party for him. It was only his second birthday ever where he had been given a party, and he was having a great time as long as he didn't think on how Ginny should have been there. She did send him a letter and a card she had made herself, though.

He said that he liked the books she had gotten, once he got over the urge to throw the Lockhart one at her. She knew he wasn't all too thrilled with them, but if he ever needed them, they'd be there. And when he didn't read them and was missing some key knowledge sometime somewhere, she would be able to throw it in his face. He had enjoyed the jokes, and had recieved more from not only the twins, but also Ron (who had also given Harry his own favorite candy).

Towards the end of the party, Hermione decided that she felt like dancing, and so turned on the Wizarding Wireless. It was currently Big Band Hour, and she grabbed Harry's hands and started dancing with him, much to his dismay. At first he just stood there looking at her as though she had turned into Fluffy, the three-headed dog.

When it became quite clear that she wasn't going to stop until he actually danced with her, he tried to not kill her with his out of sync limbs that had a mind of their own. He was extremely happy to give her over to Ron, who despite looking jealous also looked as though he wanted to dance just as much as Harry did. Eventually some of the other people in the room decided that dancing was a festive thing to do and she didn't look like such a loser dancing by herself. What could she say? Dancing always lifted her spirits.

After they had all eaten a huge dinner cooked by Mrs. Weasley, the three sat in front of the fire, Ron and Harry playing a game of wizard's chess and Hermione reading one of her books on magical traces. It scared the bejesus out of them when a head appeared unexpected in the fire. It was the newly appointed by the governers Headmistress McGonagall to wish Harry a happy birthday and to give him his birthday present - his own professional quality quidditch ball set in a leather case. His face had positively glowed when he opened it, and he had felt there was absolutely nothing he could say to his fromer Head of House to convey just how much he loved it.

By the end of the day, Harry was ready to pass out from exhaustion but he was sure that despite the obvious negative things it was the best birthday he had ever had.