Ring ring!
The phone rang from a corner of the living room, where a cordless handset rested on its base.
"Hello, this is the Aaron Hall residence. Who may I ask? Oh, alright, please hold on a moment," the house-elf Orbie said politely as he picked up the receiver. With a soft pop, he Disapparated and reappeared outside Anne's room on the third floor, gently knocking on her door.
"Miss Reeve, there's a call for you. A Miss Granger is on the line."
Click.
The door opened.
Anne stood in the doorway, half-asleep with her hair in a tangled mess, blinking drowsily and shuffling in her slippers. She had only caught the word "phone" in the distance.
She gave Orbie a sleepy smile and took the phone from him, holding it to her ear as she turned and flopped back onto her bed.
"Hello?" she mumbled.
"Good morning, Anne! …Wait, don't tell me, you're still in bed, aren't you?" Hermione's cheerful voice came through the line.
As if Hermione's voice held some kind of magic, Anne felt her mind snap fully awake. It was their first contact since the summer began, and also the first time they'd spoken since Fanny had shared that utterly ridiculous theory with her.
In a flash, Anne pivoted toward the tightly drawn curtains and flung them open. Brilliant sunlight flooded the room. She squinted but spoke confidently, "Of course not. I'm already up. Morning! It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
"It really is. Oh! Actually, Anne, happy birthday!"
Hermione sounded a bit nervous, but Anne couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. "Thank you."
"Do you have any special plans today?"
"Let's see... I'm going to get dressed and go downstairs for breakfast. Then I'll open my birthday presents in the living room. At noon, my uncle and I are going to the airport to pick up my aunt. She's starting her new position tomorrow as Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."
"Oh, I know! I saw the announcement in yesterday's Daily Prophet. That's amazing, Anne! So your aunt will be living in London now, too? That means you'll get to spend the summer in the same city with both your uncle and your aunt…"
"Yeah, I love Paris, but I think I like London even more. Although, I'm not sure Uncle Vegas feels the same way, he's probably just looking forward to me helping him brainstorm new recipes again this summer…"
"You mean the manager of that restaurant near your aunt's place?"
"Exactly. You remembered!"
"Of course I did!"
"Hey, did I ever tell you the story of how he started that restaurant?"
"No, I don't think you did. He has a story?"
"Oh, definitely. So, you know how he always says he didn't open it to make money? That's true, he opened it because of a promise and a dream. He and his wife were childhood sweethearts. When they were young, they each had a dream, Vegas wanted to be a gourmet, and she wanted to become a musician. They made a pact that one day, when they had the means, they'd open a music-themed restaurant in Paris."
"Years passed, they got married. Vegas went to work for a multinational company, and gourmet food became just a hobby. His wife became a piano tutor. Life was quiet and content. Vegas worked harder as he climbed the corporate ladder, but no matter how tired he was, his wife always had his favorite meal ready for him when he got home, and she'd play him a song on the piano. That was their routine, day after day."
Anne paused. "Then one day, he just mentioned that… she left. After that, he quit his job, moved to Paris, and opened the restaurant."
"I see…" Hermione's voice was quiet.
Through the window, Anne could clearly see the greenhouse in the yard and the European horse chestnut tree just outside it. Fanny's words echoed in her mind.
"Hermione…"
"Yeah?"
"You…" What do you think of Ron?
The question formed in her mind, but Anne shut it down immediately. No. Fanny's wild ideas weren't reliable. Better not ask.
"What is it?"
"Oh, I was just wondering, at the end of last term, you said you had something you wanted to tell me. What was it?"
"Ah!" Hermione suddenly sounded both excited and proud. "I finally figured out how Rita Skeeter was sneaking into places she wasn't supposed to be, and eavesdropping on everyone's secrets!"
"Oh? How?"
"Well, it was actually Harry who gave me the idea. After dinner one night, he said a word, 'bug.' That's when it hit me! Rita Skeeter must be an unregistered Animagus. Oh, Anne, an Animagus is a really advanced form of Transfiguration where a witch or wizard can turn into an animal. Rita turns into a beetle! That's how she was able to eavesdrop without anyone noticing."
"That's brilliant, Hermione! So, did you catch her? That explains why she hasn't published anything in the Daily Prophet lately."
"Yep! I caught her the night Harry was in the hospital wing. But after we got back to London, I let her go, on the condition that she doesn't write a single word for a whole year. I wanted to give her a chance to unlearn her nasty habit of twisting facts and insulting people."
"Very clever. Haha, I bet this is the worst year of her entire career."
Hermione burst out laughing on the other end, and they both chuckled for a while.
Suddenly, a loud alarm blared from Anne's nightstand, it was the alarm she'd set the night before to stop herself from oversleeping.
Startled, she dashed over and turned it off, then silenced the second and third alarms she'd set just in case.
"Ugh… I should probably go have breakfast now…"
"Alright, go eat then…"
Anne didn't hang up right away. She could hear Hermione moving around, looking for something?
The sounds quieted again, and Hermione chuckled through the phone. "Anne, I just realized, it's 9 a.m. I'll remember to call you after this time in the future, okay?"
Anne's ears turned red. She stammered for a moment, then gave in and said, "You know I'm not a morning person…"
"I do. And it's fine. Now go eat breakfast."
"Okay," Anne replied, and hung up. But instead of heading downstairs right away, she stood frozen by the window, still holding the phone. After a moment, she finally stirred, changed clothes, and went down for breakfast.
As she ate, she casually told Orbie to start unwrapping her birthday presents.
Fanny had sent her a huge package filled with rare magical plant seeds and materials, along with several live magical plants.
When Anne saw Orbie gently lift a few toothy, wriggling plants out of a leather pouch, she stopped mid-bite and hurried over to examine it.
"Wow," she murmured. "This is a stretchable dragon-hide pouch enchanted to hold live magical items… Fanny's family really is loaded."
She flipped through Fanny's birthday card, reading it in one quick glance. The usual warm wishes were there, but this year Fanny had added: "Don't forget what I told you, summer is the best time to grow a relationship."
Anne immediately slapped the card with a mental label: Unreliable, then tossed it into her card box.
"Ah, this one's from Miss Granger," Orbie announced, lifting a package. "She's the one who called this morning, right?"
"Yep, that's right." Anne took the package. It wasn't large, but it was heavy.
What could it be?
Curiosity lit up in her eyes.
She tore through the thick wrapping paper, and found a brand-new Sony portable CD player inside, along with several carefully wrapped CD albums.
"Wow, Sony! Wait a minute… I've seen this model before…" She ran to the living room corner and grabbed a magazine, flipping through it quickly. "I knew it, this is the February release… Not even out in Europe yet!"
"She must've saved up for ages…" Anne muttered, checking the price. She closed the magazine and turned to the CD albums.
She opened them eagerly, two Rolling Stones CDs, one of Claude Debussy's piano works, and another of Franz Schubert's piano music.
"This is kind of… extravagant," Anne said under her breath, picking up the birthday card Hermione had included.
It contained just a short, simple message and some warm wishes. After reading it, Anne folded the card and placed it in the card box. Then she stood up, clapped the dust off her hands, and returned to the breakfast table.
After finishing her meal, she told Orbie to move all her birthday presents to her room, then added, "Just leave Miss Granger's CD player on my desk. No need to put it away."
She checked the time, still early. Walking over to a tall window facing the garden, Anne opened it, changed shoes, and stepped into the greenhouse.
She moved fluidly from plant to plant, watering, fertilizing, recording growth, but her mind kept drifting back to two questions: How did Hermione afford such an expensive CD player? And… How did she know my favorite pianists?
With those thoughts swirling, Fanny's teasing suggestion didn't seem quite so ridiculous anymore.
What if… just maybe… she was right?
Whack! A long vine from a Devil's Snare snapped against her glove. Anne jerked her hand back.
Thank Merlin she was wearing dragon-hide gloves, otherwise that would've drawn blood.
She shook her head. No, there was no way the story could veer off that far. Even with some changes here and there, the trio were the heroes, they were meant to save the magical world. Falling for a Slytherin like her? Totally unrealistic.
Ugh, what am I even thinking? Why am I even thinking about dating?!
But thoughts rarely obey the will.
The more she tried not to imagine it, the more vivid the images became, walking hand in hand with Hermione around the Black Lake, sharing a huge tub of ice cream atop the Astronomy Tower, sneaking away to the greenhouse for secret dates…
Anne yanked off her gloves and quickly exited the greenhouse.
"I must've eaten too much. And it's too warm in there," she muttered, brushing her flushed cheeks. "I should go read something… maybe wait for Aaron."
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