HPTD - CH 82 - INVITATION (Patreon)

Hermione came over to see what was taking the boys so long, along with Ginny and her cauldron full of books.

As a first year, Ginny had to buy the most amount of books as many of them will we used till fifth year, and with Lockhart forcing everyone to buy his complete collection, the poor girl could barely lift the cauldron.

"Good to see you, Hermione. And who might this be?" Ben said, looking at Ginny with a scrutinising eye.

The poor girl was too shy to even introduce herself. 'Probably lost her voice in Harry's green eyes somewhere.' Ben thought.

"I thought you knew everything? She's Ron's sister, Ginny." Hermione said saltily. She'd been like this with Ben ever since the results came out, complaining that it was unfair since he could see the future.

"Oh, I know a lot of things, but I still can't understand how Ron ended up with a face like that while his sister is so cute," he said, letting out a snicker.

"Ey, what's that supposed to mean?" Ron protested.

"Just that you're different, one might say unique, despite the obvious similarities. Here, have this honey nut treat," Ben said as he pulled out a bunch of what were essentially Skyrim Snicker bars from under his robes and passed one to everyone.

"Here, and let me take care of that for you," he said, passing one to Ginny and taking the Cauldron from her.

He then pulled out his lightning wand from his storage space under the cover of his robes. Hermione seemed like she wanted to stop him, but Ben was swift with his spell casting.

He waved the wand at the cauldron, and muttered, "Relevo". The cauldron and its contents flashed dimly for a moment, and then returned to their previous appearance.

"There, light as a feather," he said, lifting the cauldron up with his pinky to show as proof.

"Ben! You're going to get into trouble. We're not allowed to do magic outside of school," said Hermione chiding him.

"I'm not gonna get into trouble, Hermione. Unless you go tattling," He said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I won't, but it's the ministry. Surely they will find out." She said as a matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, that's not how it works or I would surely be expelled by now," Ben said with a chuckle.

"Don't tell me you've been breaking the law the whole summer?" Hermione asked, shocked.

"Fuuf, it's a stupid law, Hermione, and everybody does it. The ministry can only trace whether a spell is being cast near an underage wizard and not who's casting it. It could be any of these hundreds of adult wizards around us," Ben replied, revelling in the shocked look on her face.

Hermione was the smartest witch of her age, the key word being her age. It had only been a year since she got introduced to the Wizarding World and had yet to understand its inner workings.

But being as smart as she was, quickly realised that only muggle born students who lived in the muggle world would have to strictly follow this law. She looked over to Ron to see if it was true.

"Well, mum and dad are quite strict about the 'no magic outside school' rule, but - Fred and George use their wands whenever mum's not looking and - they've never got in trouble with the ministry," said Ron.

"But-that's not fair-"

"It's not? I think it's quite fair," said Ben, stopping Hermione from going on a rant.

"How is it fair if I can't use my wand without getting into trouble and you can?"

"And I can't watch tele or use a computer, but you don't see me complaining," Ben replied.

"What's a commute-her?" Ron asked, but was ignored.

"That's not the same-"

"Oh, but it is. You live in the muggle world and get to enjoy muggle technology. I live in the wizarding world and get to enjoy magical conveniences. Seems pretty fair to me."

"But muggle-borns are part of the wizarding world too-"

"They are, and that's why they must follow the wizarding law to safeguard the statute of secrecy." Hermione didn't look convinced, but before she could come up with more ways of calling him a hypocrite, Ben put a stop to this discussion.

"Hey, before mom and dad come looking for me, I wanted to ask if you guys would like to come over this week, its been incredibly boring at the cottage."

"Will that be alright with your parents?" Harry asked, looking a little unsure.

"OH, they'll be happy to have you guys over, and I have something really cool to show you guys," he said, trying to sound mysterious.

"You should come over too, Hermione. We can continue our talk then," He said, giving a piece of paper with his address to Hermione. "It should be easy to spot a Medieval-style cottage in the midst of all the urban muggle housing," He told her.

"You can come along too, little Ginny. We've lots of baby rabbits now and you won't believe how cute and cuddly they all are." He said to Ginny, handing the cauldron back to her.

"Oh hey, you have the 1972 issue of A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration," he said, lifting the very and battered book from her cauldron.

Ginny's cheeks started matching her hair with embarrassment. Malfoy Sr. had already shamed her for it in the store and now-

"I've been looking for this for a while. It has a few extra spells that are- interesting, to say the least, because of the war, you know."

"Mind if I borrow this, Ginny?" he asked, pulling a new copy from under his robes. "You can use mine for a while."

Ginny looked shocked. For a second, she thought he was going to make fun of her, but-

"It has my transfiguration notes in it too, and get this, a few of my favourite hexes," he said, flipping through the book and showing some really descriptive illustrations along with the hexes at the end pages of the book.

Ginny's shining eyes were attracted to the gruesomely funny illustrations. There was a squat, toad like woman who had a horn for a tongue in one illustration, insect feelers on top of her head in one and alarmingly long toe nails in another.

An abnormally long nosed man with greasy long hair stood with his robes lifted as he stared at his reversed knees in shock. In one illustration, he had lost all his hair, while another had pus erupting from his abnormally long nose. But the funniest had to be the one with bat shaped bogeys escaping his nose.

"So, do we have ourselves a deal?" he asked again, and Ginny shook her, still staring at the book.

"Great, I'll see you guys later," He said, putting the new book into her cauldron. He had already stored the old book along with the diary hidden under it into his storage space.

"You do know how to use the Floo, right? Just shout, 'Brown Family Cottage' and you'll be there," he said, waving them a goodbye as he ran inside the store, after all his job was done.

"How does he fit everything in his pockets?" Ron asked, looking at Ben's vanishing silhouette.

-END OF CHAPTER-

Time for a poll, my fellow apes.

Vote for the female lead of your choice.

Bellatrix Lestrange(Crazy? I Likey!)

Cho Chang

Daphne Greengrass

Ginny Weasley

Flame Atronach (You like to play with fire, huh?)

Fleur Delacour

Hermione Granger

Luna Lovegood

Lydia (She's swoooorn to carry our burdens)

Nymphadora Tonks

Narcissa Malfoy (MILF?)

Minerva McGonagall (GILF?)

Maeve O'Malley (Sweet Home Alabama) JK

Madame Maxime (Mommy?)

Lady Death herself. (Can you die for her?)

This is just so I get a feel for my audience, also:

Harem

NO HAREM!!!

One is good, two is better (can't say no to a 3sum), three is stretching it and four is too much.