Archives :: Soundtrack :: Links // Submit Fic :: Home
TITLE: Signs
AUTHOR: Alina
AUTHOR E-MAIL: [email protected]
RATING: G
GENRE: Romance/Humorous
OTHER SHIPS: (if any) H/G (lightly)
SPOILERS: None; set after 4th year
SUMMARY: Ron receives a new Divination assignment that has him comparing his astrological compatability with Hermione
DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to JK Rowling; written for fun not profit
A/N: I'm just guessing on Ginny's birth month; so I didn't spend too much time writing it.
Harry and Ron climbed in through the portrait hole looking more disconcerted than they usually looked after Divination. "Why couldn’t she just stick to letting us predict our deaths?" Ron said as they tossed their books on a table and sank into two of the thick chairs by the fire. "And I had a bloody brilliant idea for one this time too. I was going to choke to death on a poisoned sugar quill."
Harry shook his head. He never understood anything Professor Trelawney said but he was kind of glad they were getting a different assignment this time. "At least it is short—only seven inches of scroll."
"But I’m good at prediction," Ron protested. "Anyway, I’ll worry about it later. Let’s have a go at a game of chess?"
They were well into a battle when Hermione came into the room. She came over to observe the game. Harry was losing so badly that a few of his pawns had started to try and sneak off the board before they could be taken. "You better watch them," Hermione prompted Harry.
"Don’t help him!" Ron said in mock annoyance. "He’ll only lose faster."
Hermione scowled briefly at Ron, but after a quick look at Harry, she decided not to comment. "Fine, I’ll just meet you both at dinner then, I’m just going to finish a bit of my Charms’ essay." She stopped to adjust the prefect badge on her robe.
"Good. Can we borrow it then?" Ron called after her, "Because Trelawney gave us a new Divination assignment and we won’t have time to do both."
Hermione twisted around to look sternly at Ron. "Absolutely not! How many times do I need to tell you! Besides if you’re really so short on time you should stop playing Chess."
"This doesn’t take that much time," Ron moved his bishop to check Harry’s king. He smiled smugly. He lowered his voice and said conspiratorially to Harry, "Mind you, it would take less time if I were playing Hermione."
"I heard that," Hermione said from the top of the stairs.
Harry looked up at Ron who’s smug grin was now fading into a smirk. "You know she never lets you copy. Why do you even ask?"
Ron’s ears went a bit pink and the smirk dissappeared. "And you know you never win, but you still play me." He said as he looked down, pinning Harry’s king with a sharp attack by his castle. "Check Mate."
Harry shrugged. "I could win one day."
"I know. It’s the same reason I keep asking her."
Harry raised an eyebrow at that. He didn’t think that was likely or the reason why but he wasn’t going to say so. "Another game?" He said instead. They were still playing when Hermione came down to collect them for dinner.
"Lavendar and Parvati seemed very excited about the new Diviniation assignment," Hermione said as they walked to the great hall. She sat next to Harry, so Ron swung his long legs over the table to sit opposite both of them. "They were giggling something fierce and wanted to know if I could remember when Seamus Finnigan’s birthday was. They also wanted to know your birthday, Harry. What exactly is this new assignment you’ve got?"
Harry took a sip of his pumpkin juice, swallowed, checking to make sure that Parvati and Lavendar were safely at the far end of the dinner table. As usual, their heads were bent together and they were gigging, though Parvarti occasionally glanced down the table at him. "I don’t know what’s got into them, but it’s a compatibility essay. We have to take two people we know and write about how compatible they would be based on their astrological signs, giving specific examples about the people and making a prediction about their future."
Ron narrowed his eyes at Hermione. "Reckon someone tipped Trelawney off that we, I mean some students were just making things up. She must have decided to make the assignments harder." Harry felt something move under the table as if Ron had nudged Hermione with his foot. Of course, Ron’s legs were so long he may have just been stretching.
"Oh honnestly, Ron," Hermione said as she grabbed the jug of pumpkin juice quickly, shifting her self to her right a bit. "I’m not even in your Divination class. Besides, I don’t consider that class real work at all. I don’t care what kind of things she assigns you."
"I didn’t say it was you," Ron said grabbing the jug’s handle out of Hermione’s hand before she even had a chance to put it back on the table.
Harry noticed that Ron’s glass of pumpkin juice was still rather full, but Ron began to pour anyway, still looking at Herimone.
"You implied it," Hermione was saying. Harry definitely felt Hermione’s legs move as if she were kicking Ron. "Just because I’m a prefect doesn’t mean that"
She stopped in mid-sentence as she noticed that the juice was spilling onto the table. "Ron!"
Ron looked down and swore. Hermione handed him her napkin and Ron began to try and swab at the table but it didn’t seem to pick up all the juice.
"Here," Harry said handing Ron a particularly dry roll so that he could soak up the extra juice.
"Nice table manners, Weasley," Malfoy said as he walked by, noticing Ron dabbing at the table with a roll. Crabbe and Goyle, who were following him looked blankly at each other for a second, then laughed as if they didn’t really understand why they were laughing.
"Ignore him," Hermione said gritting her teath. "So, that assignment doesn’t seem too bad. I honestly don’t know why Parvarti and Lavendar seemed so excited about it. You’d think another ball had been announced."
Ron went slightly gray at that. "It hasn’t has it?"
"Of course not," Hermione said looking at him curiously. "It was only because of the Triwizard tournament that we had one at all." She slowly began to reach for another roll, although Harry noticed she hadn’t really eaten the one she’d taken before.
"Well, I suppose Krum would come flying back here for you if we had another one," Ron muttered under his breath, also reaching for another roll.
"Well, we’re not having one," Hermione said, pulling her hand back rather quickly from the basket of rolls. Harry noticed that she had forgotten to take the roll. Harry reached across her and took one himself instead. They really were dry; Harry suspected Dobby had been put in charge of baking them.
"That’s good, I’ve had enough of balls and tournaments," Harry said, trying to gnaw at the roll.
"All right there Harry?" Ron said, as if he’d suddenly realized that the whole subject might be one that Harry still preferred not to discuss.
"Yes, so who’s the next Quidditch match against?" Hermione added.
They began (at least Harry and Ron) a spirited discussion of the new players on the Ravenclaw team, with Hermione trying to look interested. People began to leave the dining hall until it became rather empty with only a few students left lingering over dinner. Harry looked up, noticing that Parvarti and Lavendar had begun to walk towards them. Parvarti was looking at Harry curiously.
Harry decided it would be a good idea to start talking again. "So…who should I compare? For my Divination assignment, I mean." He asked Hermione. He looked from Ron to Hermione.
"Why don’t you compare you and Ron?" she suggested. She still looked slightly upset at Ron over something else he’d just said and her voice was a bit louder than it needed to be.
Parvarti, who must have overheard Hermione’s comment, stopped suddenly and turned towards them.
Her eyes were wide. "Its supposed to be a Valentine’s Day assignment." She told Hermione. "He should choose a girl if he’s going to use himself." Her eyes darted to Harry, then she started giggling. "You can’t, you know, write about you and Ron that way."
"Of course he can… I always thought those two were." Malfoy interjected from across the empty Ravenclaw table. He was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle as usual. "especially close".
"Not as close as you and those two. Is it love…" Ron said over his shoulder. "Or do you pay them?" He pulled out his wand and glared.
Malfoy’s smirk wavered a bit, and Harry winced knowing that Ron had left himself open to some crack about the Weasley’s lack of money. Before he could say it though, Professor Sinistra walked by, and Malfoy closed his mouth haughtily. He turned to Crabbe and Goyle. He looked a bit uncomfortable as he added, "Let’s go, and leave a few steps between us this time. You almost stepped on my heel."
Harry smiled but Ron still looked disgruntled, despite having had the last word against Malfoy.
"Great. This assignment is worse than I thought," Ron muttered. "why couldn’t she just stick to death predictions?"
Hermione tugged on Ron’s arm from across the table. "You really shouldn’t let him or some silly assignment get to you-"
"You’re not even in Divination," Lavender looked at Hermione disapprovingly.
"Its an important assignment. The essays are going to be read in front of the entire class tomorrow," Parvarti added. "Wouldn’t you want to know who you were fated to be with?"
Lavender grabbed Parvati’s arm impatiently. "Come on—there’s Seamus." The pair hurried off.
"Oh." Hermione said looking after the pair of girls. "Well, then who are you going to choose Ron?"
Ron had turned a distinct shade of red. "I’m done eating," He said standing up. "Load of work to do and all that."
Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance and then pushed back their plates, and followed after Ron. He had already disappeared so fast that Harry would have sworn he’d Apparated if that wasn’t impossible. As they went up the stairs, Harry turned to Hermione.
"I don’t know any girl’s birthday besides yours Hermione," Harry said. "Would you mind if we used you? Its just for an assignment and it’d be a lot easier than having to go ask someone like Parvati who would think too much about it. Its just an assignment after all."
Hermione sighed. "I suppose I wouldn’t mind, but you both shouldn’t use me. Trelawney might think you were copying each other. What about Ginny?" Hermione said quickly as they turned the corner, stopping behind Ron who had just reached the portrait that led to the Gryffindor common room. "Her birthday is…"
Ron interrupted her. "He’s not using Ginny," He said as he stopped in front of the Fat Lady. "Tabula Rosa" He muttered. "She’s my little sister for Merlin’s sake. Have you gone bloody mad? "
"Oh come on Ron," Hermione said as they stepped inside. "Its an assignment, not …." She gave Ron a strange look as she added, " its not like asking someone to a ball or anything."
Ron shook his head as he started pacing. He was now looking a bit pale. "You heard Lavender and Parvati. And Trelawney’s going to read these to the whole class."
"So?"
"I don’t want," Ron stumbled over the words, mindlessly clenching one of his chess pieces. "the whole class, bloody hell, this is worse than I thought."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don’t want to end up finding yourself destined to be with some troll or something?" She said somewhat acidly, her cheeks beginning to flush slightly.
Harry sighed, realizing it was his cue to interecede. "We still have to do that Charms’ essay. I agree with Herimone. Let’s just pick someone, anyone, and write about it. Maybe I’ll just make someone up…or use Moaning Myrtle. That should go over well since Trelawney’s always predicting my death. I’m sure she’d agree that’s who I’m fated to be with."
Ron and Hermione didn’t even smile. Their eyes were fixed in intense glares at each other.
Hermione turned her head to Harry. "You don’t have to do that. You can use me." She said.
Ron’s ears turned red. "But then who am I supposed to write about?"
Hermione smiled slyly. "He asked me first."
"He did not! You asked him," Ron argued back. "Fine, you can write about Ginny, Harry. I’ll take Hermione."
Harry glanced at Hermione’s face. She was getting quite red herself and Harry didn’t think he wanted to get any more entwined in this conversation than he already was. Luckily, for Harry, Ginny showed up just at that moment and overheard Ron’s last statement.
"What are you going to write about me?" She said blushing a little.
"Divination assignment," Harry said walking over to Ginny. "Do you mind? I just need to compare my horoscope to another girl’s, and since we’re friends I thought it would be easier if I could use you."
She nodded, her eyes widening, but somehow managed to keep her face a normal shade. With a shy grin poking through she responded "That sounds interesting. We fourth years are still doing death omens. I had a great idea that Percy would become the first victim to an experimental exploding sugarquill developed by Fred and George—very tragic you see, I always get higher marks when it’s the twins that are the cause of death."
Harry smiled. "Great, you won’t mind taking a break from that then? Let’s go work in the library." He waved to Ron and Hermione and pulled Ginny along behind him.
After an hour, Harry and Ginny decided it would be safe to return. "Thanks for helping me." He said.
She smiled. "Anytime. After all, we Leos have to stick together."
Ginny headed straight up the stairs, stifling a yawn, but Harry turned to look at Ron who was sitting forlornly by the fire. He had his Charms textbook open, but he wasn’t looking at it. Instead he was just banging his head on it, muttering "Stupid, Stupid…"
Harry tapped Ron on the shoulder. "Hey, how’d it go?"
Ron sighed and handed Harry a piece of paper. Harry looked up at Ron. "So you wrote about you and Hermione then?"
Ron nodded. "Yes. She helped me finish my Charms essay for a bit, then I decided to start on the assignment and she went to the Library; that’s as far as I got. She’s going to ask to see it, I know she will."
Harry glanced down the paper to see why Ron was so upset. "Its blank."
"I know. I can’t write this. Our signs are bloody opposites. Look, it also says here that it is doubtful that a Pisces, that’s me, and a Virgo, that’s her, would get along."
"So, what’s wrong with that?" Harry sat down. "You two do fight a lot."
Ron glared at Harry. "But we’re friends. And we make it up quickly. Some of these things make it sound like we shouldn’t even be in the same room."
"If you’re fighting, that sounds spot on to me." Harry said, but added after another darker glare from Ron. "You can write that you fight, everyone knows you do."
"Fine," Ron wrote that down.
Ron showed Harry another sentence in the book. "How do I make this sound right? It will take a great deal of patience and understanding on the part of virgo to cope with the moody, sentimental nature of pisces over a long period of time. I’m not moody and sentimental."
Harry thought about that for a moment. "Er, right." He added quickly. "Of course you’re not. Its just a general statement. Besides, this probably isn’t any more accurate than any other Diviniation method we’ve tried."
Ron frowned. "Then I should just make it up?"
"Why not," Harry grinned. "Once Ginny and I got going it was pretty easy to do."
"Right," Ron said. "Ok, then." An hour later he handed Harry his paper.
"So what do you think," Ron asked. "Will it do?"
Virgo and Pisces Compatability: Example of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
Virgo and Pisces are opposite signs. That doesn’t mean these two types of personalities won’t get on well together, but that each sign can bring out something good in the other. Virgos have a practical, reserved and analytical nature as they are an earth sign while Pisces are more emotional, intuitive and spontaneous as they are a water sign. Virgo can help Pisces focus on boring tasks like homework. Hermione often helps people with that. I can help her get her face out of a book every once in awhile to have a little fun and see some Quidditich. I don’t know if I’m sensitive like Pisces are supposed to be but I do care about my friends. Pisces is ruled by Jupiter and Neptune. That means I’m supposed to have deep feelings but have difficulty sharing them. Maybe it doesn’t always come out right, so sometimes Hermione and I fight, but we usually make it up. Virgo’s are supposed to be solid and grounded. That’s Hermione all right. She’s a prefect, knows all the rules and makes sure we all stay on track. Pisces are supposed to also be psychically gifted but Virgos aren’t attuned psychically and rely on analysis instead, so they don’t always listen to Pisces’s hunches. Loads of times, I’ve told Hermione things but she won’t listen to me because she hasn’t seen the facts to support what I say.
Harry looked up from the piece of paper. "Its fine, I guess."
"You guess?" Ron said. "That took me an hour!"
"It’s a bit short," Harry explained with a yawn, pointing to the end of the parchment. "And you don’t really make any predictions."
"I’ll copy it bigger," Ron said. "Maybe I should add something leading to our deaths, you know something tragic enough for Trelawney, right?
"You could always say you’ll both die before you admit how you feel about each other." Harry said.
"No," Ron said. "Not nearly ghastly enough, so.." He looked up at Harry. "What did you write about Ginny anyway?"
Harry shook his head. "You can use your psychic powers to guess. You’ll hear it in class tomorrow." He turned to go up the stairs, but Ron called him back.
"So should I show it to Herimone?"
"Are you finished yet?" Herimone said walking into the room from the portrait hole. "I just finished reading up on tomorrow’s potions lesson. I think Snape is going to have fun tomorrow even if we don’t." She walked over to Ron. "Are you done? Let’s see it then?" She held out her hand for the paper.
Ron grimaced slightly and handed it to her. Hermione read it very quitely. "You have a double negative in the second sentence." She said at last and handed it back to Ron.
Ron looked astounded. "That’s it?"
"What else do you want me to say? I’m not studying Divination if you remember," She said. "And I don’t see why you couldn’t have written that about Harry."
Harry tried very hard to blend into the wall behind him.
Ron blinked. "What do you mean? Harry’s sign is a Leo."
"That’s not what I meant." Hermione was beginning to get irritated.
"Well, what did you mean?"
"Aren’t you supposed to be intuitive? That’s a Pisces characteristic," She said, exhaling sharply. "Or am I too dull and predictable to understand?"
"I didn’t say you were dull and predictable!"
"You didn’t say anything good."
"Yes I did. You help people, you’re a prefect…" Ron scanned the paper. "I said we were friends, that’s good isn’t it?"
They were standing very close together now, fists clenched as they looked at each other. Harry thought that they probably wouldn’t miss it if he slipped out, so he began to make his way up the stairs quietly.
"At least you got the part right about your difficulty expressing your feelings," She responded finally.
"That wasn’t the point of the assignment!" Ron looked both angry and bewildered as only he could. "I don’t get it. You should have seen half the awful stuff it says about our two signs! It was hard to find something to say. Harry, tell her!"
"Well, I’d believe it!" Hermione snapped back. "So we’re fated to hate each other is that it?"
"Oh bloody hell, what do you want me to do?" Ron now looked completely lost.
"Don’t read that in front of the class tomorrow." Her voice was very quiet.
"I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Divination is my best class, I can’t just miss the assignment." Ron glanced at the paper, then up at Hermione who now looked as if she were holding back tears.
"Say what you want to then," Hermione said.
"Well, then." Ron shifted awkwardly until he was standing closer to her. "I can rewrite it."
Ron shot a look at Harry over Hermione’s head that made Harry decide to clear the room. Hermione whispered something to Ron that Harry couldn’t quite catch. She caught up to Harry, bid him good night with a slightly bemused statement on her face and closed the door to the girls’ dormitory. It was almost two hours later before Ron crawled into his own four poster bed.
The next day in class, to Harry’s surprise Ron read almost exactly the same essay that Harry had seen the night before.
"Nice, er, ending. I thought Hermione asked you not to read that?" He asked Ron as the climbed down the ladder from the classroom. Ron hadn’t looked too happy during Harry’s essay about how well two Leo’s get along, so Harry had decided distraction was his safest option.
"So what? She’s not in our class, is she." Ron said sheepisly, "Besides, she also said I could say what I wanted."
Something didn’t add up to Harry. "You didn’t come to bed until really late. What were you doing?"
Ron’s ears began to look a bit red. "Right, er…well, I had to recopy the thing, didn’t I? Besides, I was up late doing the Charms’ essay."
"For two hours?" Harry persisted. "After you told me you’d finished it earlier?"
Ron looked somewhat startled by Harry’s sudden interest. "Oh look, there’s Hermione. Better avoid her, I think." Ron took off, weaving through a crowd of Ravenclaw seventh years like a fish.
Harry wondered about the conversation as he walked back to the Gryffyndor tower. A couple of first years were sitting in the best chairs near the fire, so Harry went to move one of the chairs from the back wall into a corner so that he, Hermione and Ron would have some place to sit for their usual before dinner chat. As he moved the chair, Harry noticed a crumpled piece of paper behind one of the chairs by the fire. It was Ron’s essay, the one he’d written last night that was a few inches short of the mark. Harry smiled as he began to read it again. Ron had obviously edited the original essay. He had crossed some lines out and written new things in blue. It now read, as far as Harry could tell between the scratch marks:
Virgo and Pisces Compatability: Example of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
Virgo and Pisces are opposite signs. That doesn’t mean these two types of personalities won’t get on well together, <> but <> that each sign can bring out something good in the other. Virgos have a practical, reserved and analytical nature as they are an earth sign while Pisces are more emotional, intuitive and spontaneous as they are a water sign. Virgo can help Pisces focus on boring <> tasks like homework. Hermione often helps people <>with that. I can help her get her face out of a book every once in awhile to have a little fun and see some Quidditich. I don’t know if I’m sensitive like Pisces are supposed to be but I do care about my friends. <>. Pisces is ruled by Jupiter and Neptune. That means I m supposed to have deep feelings but have difficulty sharing them. <> Maybe it doesn’t always come out right, <> sometimes Hermione and I fight,<< I sort of enjoy it. She doesn’t fight with Harry like that. Its something we have just her and me.>> we usually make it up. <> Virgo’s are supposed to be solid and grounded. That’s Hermione all right. She’s a prefect, knows all the rules and makes sure we all <> stay on track. <> Pisces are supposed to also be psychically gifted but Virgos aren’t attuned psychically and rely on analysis instead, so they don’t always listen to Pisces’s hunches. Loads of times, I’ve told Hermione things but she won’t listen to me because she hasn’t seen the facts to support what I say." I can’t see my future without her, so I guess my prediction is that we will probably end up like my Mum and Dad.
Harry had a hard time reading the ending, because it was written in a thick scrawl and heavily crossed out and written over with large letters that said "bloody hell, I’m stupid. She’s my friend. I can’t show her this."
"Hello Harry," Hermione said a bit breathlessly as if she’d charged up the stairs. Her cheeks were a bit red and her breathing was quick. She looked like she was having trouble holding something back. "Have you seen Ron yet? Parvarti told me his prediction. So I’m going to drive him so crazy with nagging about homework that he’ll be put in St. Mungo’s ?" She definitely did look dangerously angry now, Harry had to admit. "Did he really say that?"
Harry nodded as there was no point in lying. He folded up the piece of paper without meeting Hermione’s eyes. "Er, no I haven’t seen him since Divination. He had to er, talk to Neville or something." Harry thought for a moment as he looked at Hermione’s face. She wasn’t just angry, she looked dissapointed also. "He left you a note though. You know, you two really shouldn’t fight so much."
"I’m sorry but I don’t want to fight with him so much either, but he can be so horridly stupid sometimes" Hermione said in a rush, but she took the folded piece of paper. "Well, I left the book I wanted upstairs, I’ll be back in a bit."
As if he had been waiting for Hermione to leave, Ron came in just as she went up the stairs. "Hey there Harry," He said. "Is she coming back down? Figure she heard what I did in Divination. Best if I avoid her, you know. Don’t know what got into her really, I mean, she was the one who said it was just a stupid assignment. Then to go and ask me to rewrite it! She’s the one who’s sensitive if you ask me."
Harry looked up at Ron oddly. "Er, right. You know, you two really don’t need to fight so much."
Ron shook his head. "Can’t help it. She’s barking mad sometimes."
"Guess that’s why you like her." Harry said grinning.
Ron looked up at Harry. "Play a bit of chess then?" He asked, obviously trying to change the subject. He summoned his chess set and spread it out on the low table next to the chairs.
Harry smiled. "Absolutely. I might win you know."
Ron shook his head, making his first move. "That’ll never happen any more than Hermione’ll say something good about Divination."
"Oh, I don’t know." Hermione said as she walked down the stairs. She looked at Harry briefly, then looked at Ron for a much longer moment as if she were studying him with new knowledge. Then she smiled very like the way she had when she’d shown them Rita Skeeter caught in a jar. "I’d say it can be quite enlightening. Fascinating subject, really."
She sat down next to Ron on the arm of his chair. "So I drive you crazy, do I?"
Ron’s ears had turned pink down to their lobes. "er, about that assignment," He said awkwardly.
"Its ok, Ron," Hermione reached across Ron’s shoulders to stop one of Harry’s pawns from hiding behind some smashed pieces. "I thought about it. I came down to say that I’m sorry and I think you were right about the point of that assignment. I shouldn’t have told you to rewrite it. It was fine as it was." She handed Ron the folded up piece of paper that Harry had given her. "I got your note."
"But I didn’t give you any—" Ron’s eyes widened in shock as he recognized the crumpled paper, then he looked up at Hermione with his mouth opening and closing as if he were some exotic, red goldfish. Harry couldn’t see their expressions as they looked at each other, but finally, Ron glanced over at Harry suspiciously.
Harry looked innocently back at Ron. "Well, its good Hermione’s not mad about your homework, isn’t it?"
He stared back at the board to contemplate his next move.
"Well, good, because, you know how it is, I mean, everyone knows you just make things up for Divination." He muttered, fixing his gaze on the battlefield. "You don’t really make predictions that ‘ll come true."
"Of course not," Hermione agreed cheerfully, but she still had that triumphant smile on her face. "As far as I can tell, you just point out the obvious and wait for it to happen. So, shall we go have dinner then?"