Goblet of Fire (Male Reader x Hermione) - Book 3

Birthday Presents

"Anything from the trolley?" bellowed through the carriage as the now-famous sweets trolley lady passed through on her first yearly trip. Hermione was sat opposite me, fixated on the paper she had picked up at the station and eagerly eying each and every page at an extraordinary rate. Ron sat beside her, slouched and bored out of his mind but that was only fair considering he never wanted to get ahead in his studies or chat to the brunette alone. Harry was beside me, sharing an earbud of my newly inherited walkman which, although it didn't quite compare to the usual tech I had back in my previous life, served its purpose and there was still a plethora of music to listen to. As the trolley rolled its way down to us, both Harry and Ron jumped to their feet now happy that something had come along to give them some attention. I gave Harry a few of my coins and asked him to get whatever chocolate he could for me before going back to my book and re-reading the last paragraph since I had not quite understood it. Unfortunately...or fortunately depending on how you viewed it, for the third year in a row caught the sporadic glances of a Hermione Granger. It was sort of cute the way she would look at me for a few seconds before quickly looking back at the paper for ten more and then repeating the same actions over and over. 

Ron's fairly simplistic order of sweets disrupted my train of thought as he got his Droobles and sat down in a rather grumpy mood, placing one of the famous bits of gum in his mouth and chewing. 

A girl around our age, pink jacket and white t-shirt to match ordered before Harry could, getting both our attention and his ;). Her Welsh accent was thicc but this seemed to attract her even more so to Harry than she had before.

"Oi oi," I whispered patting Ron on the leg and leaning forward. Harry nervously looked back and forth between the window and the girl's face, drawing a light giggle from the rest of the girl's behind her and a very muffled laugh from both myself and Ron. Hermione slapped my arm, obviously finding amusement in the scene as well but not letting it show.

In response to the trolley ladies question, Harry replied with a contradicting "no I'm not hungry. Thank you."

"What d'you meannnnn you're not hungry," I complained leaning back into my seat. "I wanted to get some chocolate!"

"Sorry I forgot." This dude couldn't be serious, could he? What is he a goldfish or something? Ergh I forgot...my arse.

Hermione let her frustration show first through her furrowed eyebrows before speaking in a very matter of fact way. "This is terrible," she complained folding the newspaper and placing on her legs. "How does the Ministry not know who conjured it? What about security?"

"That's what worried my dad so much," Ron said through a few chews. "It happened right under their noses."

Harry slowly rubbed the right side of his forehead, trying his best not to get any attention on it but failing. "It's hurting again isn't it," I said now more upright. "You know Sirius will need to hear about all of this. Everything. The dream, the World Cup, he has a right to know and I'm sure he'll help."

After arriving, Harry took my advice without another thought, sending Hedwig off with his written letter and then proceeding back with his school life. However, that wasn't what I had on my mind at all. During my internships over the Summer, I had amassed a fair amount of money and not needing much more than my Walkman and my training gear, I had saved some and then splurged the rest on a few gifts for my friend's birthdays which were to come starting with Hermione's. 

19th of September was ingrained into my head over the last few weeks and now that it was today, I had to make sure that my gifts were nicely presented and appropriate for the occasion. I placed the leather-bound book softly at the bottom of the box, wiping the few specks of dust off the metallic golden lettering. The Odyssey by Homer.  A classic that I was surprised to find out Hermione had never read considering how much value and weight it held in the muggle world of literature. Over that I gently placed the box which held most physical value, a bracelet much similar to mine that would allow her to train since she had been coming more often to my "sessions" than even Juni had expected. I finished the box off with a simple tie of a bow and a slide of a card.