Story Title: Time, Interrupted
Chapter Title: Lessons
Author: Madm_05
Rating: Strong PG-13/T
Warnings: None this time
Chapter Word Count: 5,724
Date: 13 August 2006
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everyone else from Potterverse belong to JKR.
Chapter Thirteen: Lessons
Hermione stood nervously in front of the mirror and tried to smooth down her bushy hair. Get a hold of yourself girl! It's not like you're facing the Spanish Inquisition! She swallowed, thinking briefly that the Spanish Inquisition may be kinder to her than what she was about to face. Gathering her Gryffindor courage and squaring her shoulders, Hermione walked to her bedroom door, hesitated, then finally left her sanctuary. She wished she had stayed there.
"Mum, don't you love me anymore? Why are you leaving me here?"
"I don't wanna!"
"Do I get my own room? Can I have a pet? Can I have that dog over there with the shiny medal on his collar?"
"Not right now! Mummy's busy!"
"Mum! Ginny's being herself again! Make her stop!"
"Hermione," Harry said coming up from behind her. "I'm afraid." He began to tug nervously on his new robes, a birthday gift from Tonks. Hermione felt a brief pang of regret. Harry had opened his gifts while she was at St. Mungo's-- an attempt by Sirius and Remus to cheer Harry up-- and she hadn't been able to see it.
Hermione pushed her thoughts away and looked out at the chaos before her. Mothers and fathers, all of whom looked a bit frazzled, where chasing young children around. She thought she saw something that looked suspiciously like a firecracker soar through the air, but she couldn't be sure. The staff members of the Marauders School for Children where milling about, meeting and greeting. Hermione swallowed and took his hand. "It's alright, Harry. I'm scared too." Who wouldn't be?
"Do we have to go out there too? I'd rather just stay in my room. Or your room. We could both stay in your room and practice," he said, a pleading note in his voice.
Hermione sighed. She would have liked to go back into her room and practice magic with Harry. She would even have preferred to simply sit in her room, pondering the many complications she was dealing with.
Her dreams had taken a strange turn as of late. The Dark Harry had learned her older self was having strange dreams and determined to find the cause. Hermione couldn't help but wonder what her other self dreamt of each night. Whatever it was, the Dark Harry didn't like it. When Crabbe had failed to provide an explanation, the Dark Harry had magically removed all of the bones in his body and tossed him into the lake outside Hogwarts. He had a good laugh, watching as Crabbe died. In the five weeks since she had the dream, he had gone through nearly a dozen others. Taking her cue from her counter part, Hermione took the journal Remus had given her and begun keeping track of her dreams in hopes of learning something new.
And then there were her lessons on magic with Harry. Lately she had taken to teaching him the basics of Occlumency, and he taught he how to use her magic to fly. True, he didn't know why he was learning Occlumency, but she found he liked their nightly meditations. This would be good practice should anything go wrong in the future.
And that led Hermione to another thought. Ironic, really. I tried so hard at the beginning of this to keep as much the same as possible, and now I've changed history entirely. The young witch cursed her luck. In one fell stroke, she had changed everything she had ever known, single handed. Now she had resorted to damage control. It was imperative that she find and destroy the Horcruxes. Preventing Voldemort's rise was the only way she could think of to prevent Harry himself from taking the Dark Lord's place.
Alas, though Hermione would have loved nothing more than to be allowed to sit in her room and think, she was expected to take the official tour of the school with her future peers. "Come on, Harry. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we get to do something fun," she said, crossing the threshold of the official dormitory wing.
As if their entrance was the sign he had been waiting for, Sirius stood up on a small stage he had set up for the sole purpose of speaking to the parents and future students. "Welcome! Welcome everyone, to the Marauders School for Children. As you all know, school will officially begin tomorrow, and I would like to take this time to introduce all of the staff members so that everyone will know who is who." Sirius smiled warmly.
"First, I would like to introduce our cleaning staff. We have six house - elves who will be taking care of the house. We did have another, but he met with an unfortunate accident." Hermione barely repressed a snort. Oh, Kreacher had had an accident, all right. Dobby had overheard Kreacher insulting both herself and Harry. The result was not very pleasant for Kreacher.
Sirius glanced at Hermione. Understanding what he was asking of her, Hermione stepped forward and called out, "Tipsy, Bopsy, Woddles, Lock, Winky!" The five elves popped into view, taking in the scene before them. Tipsy was the Head - elf. She was in charge of the staff as the most senior of the group. Bopsy was her son, and Woddles was his wife. Lock and Winky were their children. Hermione had been shocked to find Winky there, knowing that she had belonged to Mr. Crouch. She had discovered that there had been a contract between stating Malfoy and the new Minister that when Winky became an adult house - elf, she would be sold to Mr. Crouch. Hermione, knowing Winky's fate if that were to happen, decided not to sell the little elf.
Harry stepped up beside Hermione. "Dobby!" He called. With another pop, Dobby appeared beside Winky. All of them were dressed in uniforms- Hermione had insisted.
"Everyone, these are the house - elves of our school. They will be cooking the meals and they will be cleaning the house. They will not, however, clean the dormitories. After much thought and a lengthy lecture from a certain young witch," he glanced at Hermione, "It has been decided that the children will be cleaning their own rooms." There was some noise of disagreement among the parents. "This is to teach them how to care for and clean up after themselves. Tidiness is a skill many do not learn until late in life. Perhaps this will speed the process up a bit," he appeased.
"At the insistence of their owners-" Hermione coughed loudly and scowled. "-At the insistence of their employers," Sirius continued much to the confusion of the adults. "Tipsy, Bopsy, Woddles, Lock, Winky and Dobby are to be treated with respect. They are not to be ordered, but rather you are to ask them for things. If you do not ask, and if you do not say please, the house - elves will not obey you."
"Tha's ridiculous!" One man shouted. "Them's is house - elves. Don't matter what you tell them to do!"
Sirius stiffened. "And asking for something and saying please is considered common courtesy." Sirius returned, his jaw set. The other man was quiet. "I know not all of you will agree with how this school is going to be run. After all, treating living, breathing creatures like house - elves with respect is rather strange, isn't it?" Many looked away. "After being lectured for a painstaking two and a half hours, I have come to agree that house - elves are powerful creatures in their own right and deserve our respect. As such, respect for all magical creatures is one of the many things we will be teaching the children here."
"And just who is this employer that treats house - elves so well? They all look a bit worse for wear, if you ask me," another man said, nodding at the ragged looking house - elves. While Winky was unharmed, likely because she was to be sold, Dobby and the rest all had bandages on their fingers or ears. Poor Woddles had had her entire left arm in bandages, as well as her ears and nose.
Hermione scowled at the man. "I am their employer, and they are in the state they are in because their former owner had no respect for them," she said stepping forward.
The man looked nervously around the room before arrogantly puffing out his chest. "You can't own them, you're Hermione the Wandless Witch Granger, a Muggleborn. You've no wizarding family, and you're certainly not of age to proclaim yourself the head of your household. You can't own them."
Many adults began to nod their heads and turned back to Sirius, to hear his reply. This in turn made Hermione angry, as she hated being ignored. She opened her mouth to retort, but Remus spoke first.
"Actually, Hermione does employ them. As I'm sure you all know, Hermione was granted the right to take what she pleased from her former caretakers," Remus said carefully, noticing that the last Malfoy was in the same room, glaring daggers at Hermione. "She chose to take the house - elves. In accordance to the law, they are sworn to serve me, as her legal guardian until she is of age, but I have elected to step aside in favour of allowing Hermione to act as their employer. She has requested that we treat these house - elves with respect." The man shifted, uncomfortable with the idea of treating a house - elf with respect, but nodded.
"And if you please, her name is Hermione Granger-Lupin. It would be appreciated if you would address her as such, and not with that foolish moniker," he said, his tone sharp and defensive, like any good parent defending their child's right to be carefree. The man looked properly chastised, and Hermione felt a swell of pride in her adopted father.
Sirius nodded. "As we said, the house - elves here are to be treated with respect. As for introductions, I am Sirius Black the headmaster of the Marauders School for Children, and I will be giving flying lessons to the children. Yes, I am aware that these lessons are covered at Hogwarts, but I thought it would be fun for the children to have lessons in advance for any airborne games they may wish to play.
"Remus Lupin is the deputy headmaster, and will also be teaching reading and writing to the younger children here. He will also have more advanced reading courses for the older children at our school.
"Nymphadora Tonks," Sirius said, ignoring his cousin's glare. "Or just Dora, will also be running a Day Care we offer for working parents with younger kids. Anyone who is three or younger will be placed in our day care. Learning there will focus mostly on colours, shapes and letters.
"Andromeda Tonks will be teaching the young ladies the proper etiquette for getting along in our world. Teaching the boys proper etiquette will be Michael Davies. Likewise, Andromeda Tonks will also be giving voice lessons.
"We are pleased to say that we will be offering several instrument choices for the children to learn. Ted Tonks will be teaching the piano, the viola, the violin, and the cello amongst others. He is rather gifted musically.
"We also offer seven foreign languages for the children to learn. Mr. Thomas Moon will be teaching Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. Miss Wanda O'Dell will be teaching Russian, German and Swedish. It's typical for wizarding children to learn at least two foreign languages, one of them being either French or Italian, since any families have a French or Italian connection of some sort. We thought it might be more fun for the children if they had a wider variety of languages to choose from for the other."
Hermione's interest was piqued by the mention of foreign languages. She was already fluent in some of them, like Latin, which was very handy for remembering spells, Spanish and French. Italian sounded like it would be fun to learn, but she couldn't help but be intrigued by the others as well. At least she would get to learn two. Maybe she could talk Remus into letting her learn all four of the languages that she didn't know.
"I would also like to introduce Stefano Valentino," Sirius gestured to a tanned man with coal black hair. "All the way from Italy to teach the children about the arts. He can act as well as he can draw or paint, and has quite the reputation in Italy." Hermione cringed. She had the artistic talent of a bullfrog and the acting talent of a howler monkey. Let the humiliation begin.
"In the springtime we will be joined by our horseback riding instructor, Mr. Jerry Connor. The fencing instructor, Louis McClain will be joining us in a few days, but couldn't make it today due to a previous engagement.
"And, of course, I have set up a direct connection with St. Mungo's, just in case there should be an accident of any sort. Your children will be well cared for," Sirius said reassuringly.
"I know it seems as if the staff is a bit small, but we only have a twenty two students, and that is including the two in Day Care. We do expect to expand in the future, but for now we are happy to provide more individual attention to the children," Sirius concluded the introductions with an easy - going grin. "So," he clapped his hands together. "If there are no questions about the staff, we'll begin the tour."
Sirius began to lead everyone through the school, indicating the forbidden areas and reassuring the parents that wards had been set up so that only someone of legal wizarding age could cross. "Alastor Moody drew this age line, so it is very unlikely that the kids will be able to slip past it."
Hermione nodded to herself. She was glad that they had chosen an age line. The forbidden areas housed all of the magical items the house - elves could find in Grimmauld Place. During their free time, Sirius and Remus had been going through them, giving Dark Artefacts to the aurors and keeping the other items in safe places, away from the hands of children.
"This is the dining hall. There will not be a set table arrangement, like at Hogwarts. There aren't any houses because we encourage friendship between all of the children, not just like - minded children. The way we see it, there will be enough competition in Hogwarts when they are divided into houses. We are offering them the chance to make friends with a variety of kids their age, not only those that are in their house." Sirius was saying.
"This," he pointed down a well - lit corridor, "Is one of the dormitories. Boys rooms are on the left, girls on the right. There are three floors that the dorms are divided up in, but on each floor are two staff members, one male, one female. This is so that the children can have easy access to an adult should an accident occur." He gave them a solemn look. "We take the welfare of your children very seriously here. They will not be at risk."
Many parents began to murmur amongst themselves, seeming pleased to know their children would be well cared for. "Hey, uh, I was wondering, how long will you be keeping our kids? Will you be keeping them as long as they do at Hogwarts or what?" One man asked.
Remus nodded and stepped forward. "You will find that our schedule is far different from Hogwarts. For one thing, we start one month after they do. Even then, we won't be keeping your kids the entire time. The children should be brought to school on Monday mornings and picked up to go home Friday afternoon, at four o'clock. We provide all meals for the children for no extra cost.
"If something should happen and a parent cannot pick up their child, we are willing to keep them as long as necessary. Likewise, if any of you do not like the idea of leaving your children here for that length of time, arrangements can be made for you to drop off and pick up your children everyday. The exception is the Day Care. Any children in the Day Care must be dropped off every morning and picked up every evening. They are very young, after all, and need to spend more time with their family than the older children. We don't want to come between you and your children, rest assured," Remus concluded then gestured to Sirius.
"Right. Now, if you'll follow me, I'll show the classrooms," Sirius gestured towards the staircase. Hermione sighed, shared a bored look with Harry, then obediently followed everyone up the stairs. The tour continued on. Hermione was secretly amazed at how professional Sirius was through it all, considering his playful personality.
Once the tour finally finished-- none too soon for Harry and Hermione-- and the group had walked through the entire house - turned - school, Sirius invited everyone to dinner. It was a long, laborious process for Harry and Hermione, who were always in the spotlight for one reason or another. First they cooed over Harry, and how polite he was, then they cooed over her, and how sweet she was. Hermione felt like she was going to be ill.
It didn't help that Draco Malfoy had kicked her in the shin on the way to the table and made her knock a glass over. The only benefit she could see was that everyone was staring at her, and didn't see Harry and Draco glaring daggers at each other. She could already tell that they were going to cause problems. Truthfully, she hadn't expected anything different. While living with the Weasleys may curtail his prejudice in the future, she didn't think anything would dull his hatred of her and anything associated with her. Trying to explain to him that his father was a cruel and evil man was pointless.
"Well," Remus said standing when at last the torturous meal was over. "Sirius and I thought it might be nice to let the children get to know each other a little bit and give all of the parents here the chance to speak with the staff. If the children would be so kind as to follow me," Remus said, stepping towards the door that led to the art room.
Harry and Hermione obediently stood and followed Remus to the door, the other kids following their example after much prodding from their parents, and much grumbling on their part. Hermione had been hoping they might go to the library, but it seemed she was doomed to art room. She shuffled in, following behind Harry as the adults began to speak with the instructors. She would rather face a room full of dementors than a room full of art supplies- dementors at least wouldn't be nearly as embarrassing. This was a disaster waiting to happen.
"Okay," Remus said standing in the front of the room. "Why don't all of you pick a seat at one of the tables. I thought it might be fun for you to draw some pictures, yes, even those of you who think you are too old for this sort of thing, alright? Now, I want you all to draw a picture of your favourite animal, and when we're all done, each of you can come up to the front of the room, show us your picture, and tell us what your favourite animal is, okay?"
With that, Remus gave his wand a sharp flick and silently summoned several pieces of parchment and a large assortment of crayons. The group of kids all began their task, working diligently in their quest to have the best picture out of everyone. Hermione was more concerned with having her picture actually resemble an animal and not a blob.
Crookshanks is a cat, she thought, I shouldn't have too much trouble drawing a cat. Biting her lip, Hermione grabbed an orange crayon, intending to draw a picture of her beloved Crookshanks. Of course, Crookshanks was much more ragged looking than the cat in her picture, so Hermione set to work making the cat hair look thick and fluffy, just like Crookshanks. When at last she finished, Hermione looked happily at her picture of her adorable cat- she even made the cat in the picture was bowlegged.
"What is that?" Ginny Weasley had peaked over at Hermione's picture and snorted. "You were supposed to draw an animal, not a bush!"
"It is so an animal! I'll have you know it's a--"
"Hey, you drew a bush, not an animal," Cho Chang said snootily. "What are you, stupid? You're going to get into trouble."
"Hey," Harry interrupted. "Hermione says it's an animal, so it's an animal." Harry's words did little to help Hermione, as his expression made it clear that he, too, thought she had drawn a bush.
"It's a cat." She said firmly. I knew this was going to be bad, but not this bad! Can no one see they cattiness of my cat?
"That is not a cat," Marietta Edgecomb said superiorly from her seat beside Cho Chang. "This is a cat," she said, holding up her own well - drawn picture of a calico cat.
Cho Chang began to laugh and Hermione wondered if this Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecomb somehow knew about the sneak jinx from her fifth year, or if they were channelling their other selves. Oh great, not only to I have to keep Harry from turning evil, now I have to deal with bad Karma!
Hermione groaned. "Give me trolls. Give me basilisks. Give me dementors," she mumbled under her breath. "But Merlin, please don't make me have to deal with these people on a regular basis."
Hermione looked up at the surrounding group. All of the girls were glaring at her, while most of the boys were trying to sabotage the other boys' pictures. Harry was the only one still working. He was colouring the ground underneath of a dog green. Maybe, she thought with dark humour, the girls have realized that I'm going to marry Harry when we are older and they aren't. Hermione smirked to herself. Plain Hermione Jane-- one point. Beauty Queens-- nothing! She felt a glow of triumph, then immediately felt guilty for her thoughts. The other girls were a bit young for that sort of behaviour. They were probably angry with her because her adopted father was part of the staff. Still, it was a nice to think that people were jealous of her.
"How is everyone doing over here? Oh, Hermione! Sweet Pea, while that is a lovely picture of a bush, even if it is an unusual colour, you were supposed to draw an animal. Why didn't you do what I asked?"
Hermione's head hit the table with a resounding thunk. Artistic talent of a bullfrog, indeed.
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Later that night, after the cat - bush fiasco, Hermione sat on the edge of her bed, waiting patiently. She glanced at the clock and frowned. Harry was late. Harry had never been this late before. She was debating with herself whether or not she should go looking for him, when her door creaked open and a small form slipped in.
"I'm sorry Hermione. Papa Sirius and Uncle Remus were walking up and down the halls, checking to make sure the others weren't wondering around," he said, standing by her bed.
Hermione sighed. "We're just going to have to be more careful from now on. Come on, let's get started for tonight," she said, slipping off the bed and walked to the centre of the room.
Harry followed suite. "What are we doing tonight?"
"I thought we'd work on flying some more- I think I'm finally getting the hang of it- then go on to meditation. I was reading that book I took from the Malfoys, and I found a new way to calm yourself after rigorous activity." Hermione said.
He sighed. "Why do we have to learn Occlumency, Hermione? I mean, you don't need to learn it, you have it naturally, and why would anyone want to read my mind?"
"First of all, Harry, Occlumency is not reading someone's mind, it's looking into it and seeing images," she explained briefly. "And we both need to learn it. There are a lot of people who don't like us Harry, and Occlumency protect us from them." She solemnly looked into his eyes. "People hate us because they think I killed Lucius Malfoy and because my parents are- were- muggles, and they know that you defeated Voldemort. They will try to hurt us, and Occlumency will protect us."
"How? How can Occlumency protect us from them? I mean, they're grownups, aren't they more powerful than us? Aren't they better at magic than us?" Harry asked. "We're just kids."
Hermione sighed. She loved Harry, but sometimes she really hated it when he had an intelligent thought. It made it that much harder to get him to do what she wanted, and she wanted him to learn Occlumency so that Voldemort couldn't learn what they were doing through their link. Unfortunately, she couldn't very well tell Harry that he was linked to the Dark Lord so she had to come up with another argument.
"Harry," she began, "We're not just kids. You and I, we're really powerful," you more than me. "We can do this." She could tell her words were beginning to work. He just needed a little more convincing. "Besides, you don't want Uncle Sirius and Papa Remus to find out, do you?" And I've got you, hook, line and sinker, she thought as he shook his head and agreed.
Hermione smiled to herself in private satisfaction. Her smile dimmed when she remembered that she was manipulating her best friend, but she pushed it away, knowing that what she was doing was for the best. One day, if Harry ever understood his connection to Voldemort, he would thank her for this, especially if it got him out of Occlumency lessons with Snape. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of the Half - Blood Prince and focused on Harry. I will do what I have to do.
"Right, so let's work on flying first," the young witch said. A moment later, both of them were hovering a foot off of the ground. "Good, we need to work on our agility right now, so-"
"Agility?" Harry asked.
"Speed," Hermione said, rather than trying to explain agility, then summoned her blue dog to her. "We'll practice throwing Disco back and forth and catching him, okay?"
Harry nodded in agreement. And so a game began, with Harry and Hermione trying to catch the little blue dog more times than the other. It was this activity that caused them a great deal of trouble. They had become so involved in their game of catch, that they forgot what exactly they were doing. They never even noticed the door open, and they certainly didn't see Sirius watching them fly around the room, tossing Disco back and forth. Lost in their game, they were blissfully unaware of anything. "Bloody Hell!" Sirius breathed amazedly, catching Harry and Hermione's attention.
Their concentration broken, both plummeted to the ground while Sirius stood transfixed. Harry was lucky enough to land on the bed. Hermione, however, landed hard on her behind. "Oh, my bum!" She moaned. "I think I landed on my tailbone."
"You have a tail?" Harry slid off the bed. "Let me see!"
"That's enough, you two," Sirius said solemnly, regaining their attention. "I think the both of you need to come with me. Right now," he gestured to the hall behind him. The pair stood and gave each other a grave look. If Sirius' attitude was any indication, they were in a lot of trouble.
Idiot! She mentally kicked herself as she and Harry followed Sirius down the hall. How could you have let your guard down? You should have been paying attention to what was going on. You shouldn't have let yourself get all caught up in some silly game.
"Sirius?" Remus asked when they walked into his official office. "What's going on? Has something happened?"
"Yes, something has happened. Guess who I just found flying around Hermione's room," he gave Remus a solemn look, "Without a broom."
Remus' face turned ashen. "Oh my." He swallowed. "Both of them?"
Sirius nodded. "Guess what else they were doing. Playing catch." He began to pace angrily. "They were just tossing Hermione's stuffed animal back and forth, like it was no big deal that they were hovering several feet off of the floor," he turned angrily towards them. "Like they couldn't have been hurt if they were a little less careful, like they couldn't have misjudged something and died." He ran his fingers through his hair, panting for breath, trying to regain his calm.
He's afraid, she realized. They both are.
Remus sat in silence, staring at her, his eyes boring into hers. He seemed to be waging some sort of war within himself. "Hermione, can I speak with you?" She gave a tentative nod. He turned to Sirius. "Don't say anything you'll hate yourself for later, Padfoot," he said with a nod to Harry. For the first time, Hermione looked over at Harry and saw that he was pale as a ghost, and looked mortified.
Reluctantly, Hermione followed Remus into a small room connected to his office, housing several filing cabinets. For a long moment, they only stared at each other. Eventually, Remus knelt down so that he was on her level. "How long have you two been doing this, practicing magic?"
"A few months," she replied quietly.
He nodded to himself. "I wouldn't be able to stop you from teaching Harry to use magic if I tried, would I?"
"No," she said softly, deciding not to lie. She hated lying.
He nodded slowly then sat down on the ground and stared at the wall pensively. "I've thought an awful lot about you, Hermione. Do you know what I've discovered?" She shook her head. "That you are a mystery. One minute you are playing muggle board games just like any other child, and the next you're reading advanced books on Occlumency." She stiffened. "Oh yes, I know what you read. You've left a few of your books on the tables on occasion.
"And then I think of how you dealt with the Malfoys. You never cried, did you? I will not ask you why you never cried, no matter what they did, and I will not ask you how you held up better against Malfoy than grown wizards before you have. Each time I think of it, I realize all over again that you are a most extraordinary child."
He looked at her. "There is so much about you that I do not know, so much that I truly believe I will never know. Do you know what you look like to me, Hermione?" Again she shook her head. "You look like a child carrying a burden you should not have to bear. You and Harry are the same that way.
"I have decided, Hermione, that I'm not going to try and stop you, because I do not think it will do any good. You have set your mind to this, and I know, somehow, that when you've set your mind to something there is no stopping you." Remus sighed heavily.
"I will not pretend to know the burdens of seeing the future, of knowing what will, what will not, and what may, happen. I will not pretend to know why, or even how, you taught Harry wandless magic. I will not ask you that.
"In the time that you have spent with me, with us, I have come to understand that I will never know what is going on inside your head." He stopped suddenly and stared at her. "But Hermione, please, do not practice magic alone. I know that I will never be able to keep you from using your magic, and I think it is wonderful that you've taught Harry, but it is very dangerous to do this by yourself. Please," he grasped her hands gently in his. "Don't do this alone. Let us help you, even if there is only a little we can do."
Hermione was struck by how much she and Remus were alike. She had said something very similar to Harry when he tried to push her and Ron away when they were nearly killed trying to get the Hufflepuff cup. What was more, he was going to let them learn magic, better, he was going to help. She nodded, unable to speak her gratitude.
"Good," he smiled and pulled her into a hug. "Hermione," he said softly as he released her. "You and Harry will have to sit out during play time for the next two weeks." Her jaw dropped. "Well, you were breaking the rules, and what you were doing was very dangerous," he explained. "You need to learn that even though you're my daughter now, that I'm not going to treat you different than the other children, okay? Now, I'll talk with Sirius about this, and then all of us will speak with Professor Dumbledore, you remember him, don't you? We will speak to him on this matter this Saturday."
Hermione sighed and nodded. "I understand." She felt more than a little childish as they walked back into his office- she was mentally nineteen years old, now, but she had really come to enjoy play time now that she had a playmate.
The pair walked in and saw Harry and Sirius sitting together on the floor, talking quietly. "I think they'll be a while longer. How about I walk you to your room?"
Hermione nodded her agreement just as she caught Harry's eyes with hers. It's going to be okay, she told him with her eyes. Harry nodded and smiled in return. It's going to be okay, she thought to herself.
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A/N: I'm so very sorry that this took so long, but I had several things to deal with. First I wanted to finish "Home" and then I began work on an essay about what I think the final Horcrux is. For some reason, it is taking a long time for the mods to post it on the forums, but I'm patient, so I can wait. On top of all that, my mother did something to her back and can barely walk, so I've been taking care of her. Until my mother is better, I'm afraid it will be a while for the next update, sorry.
That said, I would like to thank everyone who read last time, and special thanks to those who reviewed. Please read and review!
Cheers,
Madm_05