Hermione watched the man dash off with an incredulous look on her face before looking down to see her hands were on Harry's arms. When he noticed this too Harry found himself becoming very warm. Should he apologize for something? The girl partially in his arms slightly shook her head.
"Hey Harry," she said, smiling shyly up at him.
"Hey Hermione," he replied, finally seeming to relax and smile when he realized they'd just repeated the opening lines of their letters - and said hello to each other, twice.
"Did you - er - want to get ice cream?" Harry asked numbly as he released his hold on her and gestured to where the man just went off to a short distance away.
"No, that's alright," Hermione said. "Unless you wanted to," she added quickly.
"Er - no," Harry said. "Maybe later," he added, remembering he hadn't had breakfast yet. "So was that-?"
"-The Fred and George who spawned me?" Hermione finished for him. "Yes, but if it wasn't for the hair I'd swear I was adopted."
Harry chuckled, earning a tight-lipped smile from her.
"I see Percy," Hermione said, nodding to the redheaded prefect standing nervously outside of Flourish and Blotts and scanning the crowd. "But where are Ron and the others?"
"Oh, um," Harry said, embarrassedly running a hand through his hair. "Mrs. Weasley said she'd be keeping them occupied. She thought we could walk around with him. He - er - he's got a girl coming."
"Oh," she said, cheeks tinting and tongue darting out to wet suddenly dried lips as she thought of something to say. "That's very - thoughtful of her." Hermione struggled to get her face under control as she nervously plucked at the bottom of her blouse.
"You look-," Harry started, before freezing mid-sentence. What should he say? Not beautiful, that's too much. "-Nice," he finished dumbly.
Why'd he suddenly get so stupid around Hermione? It was like someone had sucked all of the oxygen out of the street leaving him all woozy. It was an oddly lightheaded and energetically nervous kind of feeling. Harry didn't know if he liked it or not.
"You look smart too," she said. "New clothes?"
"Not exactly."
"Mm, Hermione, you've got to try one of these," the gangly man from before said as he reappeared with a half-eaten ice cream cone that might've been sized for small children. "Triple cream vanilla. It puts Lakenham's to shame. Oh! Where's my manners," he said spotting Harry and extending his hand. "You must be Indy, it's written all over your forehead."
Harry stifled a groan as Hermione covered her mouth as she struggled not to laugh.
"Dad, this is Harry," Hermione said as Harry shook her dad's hand. "Harry, this is the large child I live with."
"Nice to meet you, Dr. Granger," Harry said, it being his turn at trying not to laugh.
"Oh, no need for the doctor bit with me," the lanky man said with a wave. "I'm only a dentist. My wife's the doctor in the family."
Harry looked at Hermione curiously.
"So what's the plan for the day?" Mr. Granger asked.
"Er-," Harry said stunned. People had plans for these things? "I've got to stop by Gringotts for a bit, but not until later. Besides that-"
"-We'll just be looking at the shops with Percy and a friend of his," Hermione said, filling in and nodding to the prefect in question.
"Is he the boy over there talking to that older gentleman and the bird who looks like she wants to fly away? The one with the badge on his chest?" Mr. Granger asked, looking over to where Percy was chatting with Mr. Weasley and a girl Harry vaguely recognized from school who must've been Penelope.
"Yeah," Harry replied. "That's Percy and his dad."
"Well, he looks like a real stick-in-the-mud, doesn't he?" Mr. Granger said disapprovingly. "I'll go over and distract them while you two kids run off and play," he whispered conspiratorially. "I'll be in the bookshop pricing things; just stop by later so we can go to Gringotts together. I need to convert some money into the solid gold bricks you guys use."
Harry stared in confusion as the man swept off to introduce himself to Mr. Weasley. He must've been more muggle-crazy than he thought for after the shock of seeing a muggle wore off he was greeting Hermione's dad like they were old friends, giving Percy and Penelope the opportunity to slip away.
"That was - nothing like I thought it'd be," Harry said in a daze.
"And you don't really get used to it either," Hermione said beside him. "I think he purposely chooses the exact opposite of whatever anyone expects him to do. Did you get new shoes?" she asked suddenly looking down at his feet.
"Oh, yeah, about a week ago, why?" he asked.
"Oh, it's nothing," she said, describing what she'd seen.
"Well I did say we could do what he wanted with them," Harry chuckled. "I thought he'd just be destroying them. Would you like to meet him? He's definitely an interesting person."
"Maybe later," Hermione said. "Oh! I just remembered," she said suddenly, grabbing his hand and pulling him away. "Come with me."
.....
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