Blind Confrontations
Chapter 10: New School, New Life
August.
Columbia University in the city of New York three years after Voldemorts defeat in Diagon Alley. Lauren Mcallister was unpacking her cases in her dorm room when she heard her room door open. "Howdy Roomie!" She turned to greet her new roommate and stopped short as a man clearly heading into his fifties walked into the room. Lauren blushed with embarrassment. "Oh, I… I thought… you're not…I mean…"
The man grinned at the young woman's plight and decided to take a small measure of pity on her. "No I'm just her father Ted Granger. She'll be up in a minute she's just getting the last of her things from the car." Ted extended his hand shaking the girls firmly. "Pleasure to meet you." Ted sat the case he was carrying upon the bed against the wall.
Lauren blinked slightly. "Oh you drove? I had to fly. I came from Texas, Austin to be exact." She sat on the edge of her bed wondering where the man had come from especially as it was quite clear his accent was definitely not American. "Where did you drive from? Forgive me if I'm being nosy but your accent isn't from around here."
Ted grinned slightly and pulled a handkerchief from his coat pocket and mopped his brow of sweat. "You're quite right I'm not from around here. We are originally from Oxford in England, but sister lives here in New York and she agreed to let my daughter and I stay with her for a few weeks while she got ready for classes."
A voice from the hallway brought the conversation to an end. "Daddy? I locked Aunt Ellen's car but campus security says you can't keep it parked in front, they are going to tow it." Hermione rounded the corner and appeared in the open doorway. Her father grinned t her expression and raised his hands in mock surrender.
"I'll get to it in a minute, this is your roommate."
Lauren waved cheerfully at Hermione. "Hi I'm Lauren Mcallister."
Hermione grinned and set down the box she was carrying. "Hermione Granger. Pleased to meet you Lauren." Hermione glanced around the room that they would be sharing for the foreseeable future. "Nice stereo."
Lauren grinned at her new roommate. "Yeah that baby is my pride and joy, what can I say, I'm here studying music. What about you, you like music?"
Hermione nodded. "Good music."
Lauren grinned and plucked at the over sized T-shirt Hermione was wearing. "So says the girl wearing a Nickleback T-shirt."
"Hey! NickleBack rock!" Hermione giggled as she pulled her T-shirt out of Lauren's fingers."
Lauren nodded sagely. "See that's your problem, your rocking when ya should be wallowing in the blues."
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "The blues? You mean like 'My dog can't get a job, my truck has left me and my women's howling at the kitchen door' blues?"
Lauren shook her head and stifled her laughter at Hermione's comment. "Nooo, that's country ya fool." Lauren turned to the box on her bed and rummaged through it pulling out a CD case. "This here is Sue Foley, you put this on, you'll see what I'm about."
Hermione grinned and took the CD and set it down on her table and turned to her father as he stood in the doorway. "One sec Lauren. Daddy?" She crossed the room and took her fathers hands in her own. "You're going?"
Ted Granger smiled at his daughter and pulled her into a hug. "You are starting University Hermione, not me. I need to get back to your aunts and finish packing. You know my flight leaves in a few days." Ted sighed. "I still don't understand why you didn't go to University back home."
Hermione sighed and looked down at the floor. "You know why Daddy, to much happened back home, I needed to get away." She looked up meeting her fathers gaze. "I'll write to you every week I promise."
Ted Granger leaned in and hugged his daughter. "You better." He pulled back and flashed her a brilliant smile. "I am very, very proud of you, you know that?" Hermione nodded her eyes bright with tears. Ted Granger smiled and gently kissed his daughters cheek before he let his daughter go and started down the corridor.
Hermione stood watching her father walk away and she turned to her roommate when she felt her hand on her shoulder. Lauren smiled. "You have a hell of a cool dad."
Hermione grinned and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I know."
************
Much later after both girls had finished unpacking Hermione stood on her bed pinning the last of her posters onto the wall just as Lauren entered the room carrying a pizza box. "Foods here."
Hermione nodded as she pushed the last pin into the wall. "Thank god I'm starving."
Lauren glanced at the posters that Hermione had put up. "Who is that, is that Bruce Lee?" She shook her head as she flipped open the pizza box. "Don't tell me you think Bruce Lee was hot?"
Hermione grinned as she smoothed out the creases. "They were a gift from my best friend back home."
Lauren chuckled as she battled with a slice of triple cheese pizza trying to get it into her mouth. "So you're into all that Chop Socky stuff huh?"
Hermione glanced over her shoulder at her new friend. "Chop Socky?" She bent her legs slightly. "Watch this." She suddenly sprung backwards her lugs tucking up into her chest as she seem rotate in the air till she landed softly on Lauren's bed on the other side of the room and snagged a slice of pizza from the box. "Yeah you could say that I am into it."
Lauren just stood there slack jawed. "That is so cool!" Hermione grinned as she sat herself down between the two beds and set the pizza box down on the floor. "So how long have you been training to be able to do stuff like that?"
Hermione chewed on her pizza slice trying to come up with the best explanation. "Two years intensive training, where I went school defence classes were a part of the curiculum, and I had the best marks in the school for every class, I was determined I would have the best marks in this as well. When I was younger till I was eleven I used to do gymnastics and even though I hadn't done any of those class in several years it still helped me with the class." She shrugged as she tossed her pizza crust into the box. "That summer I saw an ad for a newly opened dojo so I signed up over the summer, been doing it ever since."
Lauren nodded. "What about your parents what do they do?"
Hermione smiled. "They are both dentists, they own their own practise back in the United Kingdom." She glanced up at Lauren. "What about your parents."
Lauren shrugged. "Divorced. My dad's in oil so he travels a lot and my mom lives in Austin. She's a doctor."
Hermione took another slice of pizza from the box. "You going Pre-Med like me?"
Lauren laughed. "Hell no! Too much like hard work sister." She shrugged and grabbed the last slice from the box. "Like I said earlier I'm gonna be a musician."
Hermione pointed to the guitar case she spied sitting in the corner of the room. "So you can actually play that thing?"
Lauren glanced over her shoulder noticing what Hermione was pointing at. "I sure try."
"Okay, so…?"
Lauren made a face as she grabbed the guitar and cracked open the case and pulled out the acoustic. "All right, but if I suck you gotta lie to me."
Hermione giggled and closed the pizza box over and flipped the lid shut before tossing the carton in the trash. "You're not gonna suck."
Lauren grinned at her. "You're pretty confident considering ya ain't known me more than eight hours."
Hermione grinned and leaned back against her bed. "Oh yeah am very confident."
Lauren grinned even more and strummed her guitar. "I think you and I are going to get along just fine."
*******
TBC…
AN: Yeah finally the next instalment, for those of you that care the bulk of the next several chapters will mostly all be Hermione's point of view, and to answer a query "Eviscero" = Eviscerate my own personal Spell word for slicing something.
Yours most gratefully
The ever despicable Kai Lun Mau