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In the Grangers, Harry found a couple who genuinely cared about their daughter's wellbeing and happiness, and as a consequence, they had accepted wholeheartedly her status as a witch, even though it had seriously curbed the time they were able to spend with their daughter. They took to Harry immediately as Hermione's closest friend, and it was not long before he was calling them by name—William and Elizabeth.
Of course, this arrangement was also the cause of a certain amount of discontent in their group as well. Specifically, the Weasley children, who were there at their mother's rather grudging acceptance, were absolutely refused when they applied to their parents to stay the last weekend of the summer with the Delacours as well. It was understood by all that although the given reason for Mrs. Weasley's refusal was the fact that she would not see her children again until Christmas, a rather large consideration was the fact that she truly did not like the Delacours and would prefer her children spent as little time with them as possible. She was barely tolerant of her children training with "those foreign people" at all.
The twins took this decision rather stoically—most of the rest of the group were younger than they were, after all, and they decided they could plot their pranks from Grimmauld place more effectively anyway. Ginny, though disappointed that she was not to spend more time with her friends—including Harry, who she was coming to know on a more personal basis—was also philosophical about it. She would be in their company for the next several months, and she was happy to spend some more time with her parents.
The true difficulty was Ron. He was decidedly unhappy that his request had been denied and had complained loud and long on the matter. His mother was not to be moved, however, and Ron spent the entire weekend at Grimmauld Place seething, angry over the loss of his time with Hermione and imagining everything that Harry might be getting up to with her.
For Hermione's part, she was rather suspicious of Ron. He had seemingly changed overnight, and though the change could be said to be for the better, there almost seemed to be a forced quality to it. He was much more considerate of her feelings, for instance, and he rarely provoked a disagreement with her. There had been times, however, when he had appeared to be on the verge of an explosion and had curbed his natural tendency just in time. The rest of the time, he paid a lot of attention to her, flattering her with comments and giving her awkward little gifts. It was almost like he had someone coaching him and was now set on making a move upon her. It was most disconcerting to the young woman who had rarely attracted such attention in the past, but on the other hand, it also felt good to have someone behave in such a way toward her. Not that she was in danger of falling to his charms—she was firmly of the opinion that they would do badly together as a couple.
As for the various relationships between the disparate members of the group, while they appeared to get along well, there were certain undercurrents that passed between them which often appeared only to the discerning eye. Neville and Luna seemed somewhat blind to the underlying tensions between certain other members of the group, but that was hardly surprising, given the fact that everyone else was much more familiar with each other than they were, with the possible exception of Fleur.
Fleur's initial relationship with Ginny was characterized by wariness, though they had warmed to each other significantly by the end of the first week. For those who were perceptive enough, it was clear that their initial difficulties were based almost solely upon Ginny's all-consuming jealousy of the older witch. However, this jealousy was quickly eased because Fleur made the effort to get to know Ginny, and Ginny, for her part, discovered that Fleur was a pleasant and intelligent witch. She soon realized that Fleur had been forced into this as much as Harry had—once she had realized and accepted that fact, it was much easier to get to know the French witch without any rancor straining their relationship.
Between Hermione and Fleur, a fast friendship had formed, and the two were much in each other's confidence early on in their relationship. They were different in some respects, but they had many similarities as well, the least of which was not the fact that they had both been loners to a certain extent in their younger years, Fleur due to her heritage, and Hermione due to her intelligence. And as they were both interested in Harry's happiness, they found that they had much common ground upon which to base a friendship.
Finally, a certain amount of friction had also sprung up between Harry and Ron, though Harry was not completely certain the cause for this. He had known that Ron was not happy to have had to stay at Grimmauld Place the Sunday Hermione had come to visit with her parents, but what that had to do with him, he could not be certain. Ron, however, was not about to let it lie, and Harry would soon find out what was bothering his friend.
Ron was frustrated. He had never been exactly a paragon of patience (even Ron could admit he was not blessed with that particular virtue), and the situation with Hermione was wearing on him.
Perhaps amazingly, for one who was not normally particularly fond of books, Ron had taken the one that the twins had given him and read through it in no time. The book had been filled with such helpful tips and instructions, and he had been inordinately pleased with himself—surely with this aid, he could go about wooing his closest female friend!
But unfortunately, it had not happened that way. Though Ron had made good use of the book, following its instructions to the letter, something appeared to be missing. Hermione seemed as though she was warming to him, and she appeared to be appreciative of the effort he was making to show her how he felt, but beyond that, she seemed unaffected. It was driving Ron barmy—he was stuck, and he did not know what he should do.
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