A/N: Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter, I wasn't sure how you guys would like the story, but I've had a lot of encouragement! So, without further ado…chapter two! (Lol, that kinda rhymed.)
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About a week had passed by since Hermione's mother had first started working at Hogwarts and their lives had changed. Hermione had yet to decide whether this was a good change, or not. She knew her mother was happy, but she felt something missing. Like a piece of her life wasn't complete. Though, it wasn't that thrilling being a waitress at the Three Broomsticks every weekend.
When Hermione woke up, she began her normal routine. It was Saturday morning, bright and sunny. She stuffed her unused wand in her pocket and headed out the door, only to be followed by Emma. Now that her mum was always at Hogwarts, Hermione ran the house. Sure, they could probably find some way to live at Hogwarts, but Hermione didn't want that. And that meant that Emma followed her everywhere. On every single one of her jobs.
As she arrived at the Three Broomsticks she couldn't help but realizing how much busier not only the place, not just all of Hogsmeade, was a lot busier today. She saw a lot of younger looking kids walking around and wondered where they had come from. Her mother never told her that they were going to be in Hogsmeade that day. Then again, she hadn't spoken to her mother that much lately.
"What's up with all the kids?" She asked Madam Rosmerta that morning when she tied the apron around her waist, slipping her wand inside that pocket.
"Well, its Hogsmeade weekend for the Hogwarts students. They come here every so often on Saturdays." She huffed. "Thought you would've known…"
Hermione rolled her eyes at her boss but smiled and continued her work.
~
The afternoon came quickly, and the pub was now bustling with students. She struggled to keep up with it all, as she did not have the prime advantage of magic like the rest of them did.
Hermione approached one of the tables that had about 5 students seated around it out of breath and asked, "What can I get you?"
"We'll just take a round of pumpkin juices, thanks." A green eyed, raven haired boy told her smiling. Well that's refreshing, he wasn't rude to me.
When she returned with their drinks and began setting them down, a blue eyed blond girl sitting next to the raven
haired boy asked. "You look around our age? How come we haven't seen you at Hogwarts?"
"I, uh, can't go there. I'm far past training age and we just moved into the uh…wizardry part. My mum teaches there though." Hermione said, smiling weakly.
"Oh, that's a shame." The blonde smiled. "Wait, your mom teaches there? Who is she?"
"Professor Granger." Hermione said proudly. "Transfiguration."
"Oh!" A red haired boy exclaimed. "Right, she's pretty cool. Not as strict as McGonagall, not evil like Snape…yep. I like her."
"Doesn't let me get away with sleeping in class…but…she's alright." A blonde boy sighed.
Hermione smiled gratefully. "Thanks."
"Yeah, my mum teaches too. Professor Potter. Charms. I think our mum's know each other well." The raven haired boy told her.
Hermione laughed softly. Just as she started to hand the last drink to him, it slipped from her hands and spilled all over his shirt. And her eyes closed tightly.
"What did you do that for girl?" Hermione's father screamed as she tried desperately to apologize for spilling the drink on him, on accident.
"I didn't…" Hermione whimpered as he backed her against the wall.
"You stupid, insolent bitch…" He advanced toward her and raised his hand to hit her…
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean…" Hermione started, stammering as he stood up. "I'm sorry…" She closed her eyes.
She felt him grab her shoulders. "Hey…hey, its okay." He said softly. She opened her eyes and looked into his face, realizing that he knew something was wrong. She didn't know how he knew, but he somehow did. She saw everyone else's eyes on them, wondering what the hell was going on.
"I'm so sorry…" She said.
"Don't worry about it." He smiled. "I don't care. I'll just clean it with a spell or something. Honestly, it's okay." He let go of her shoulders and pulled out his wand.
"Scourgify." He said, pointing the wand toward his shirt.
Her face lit up and she gasped. It didn't matter how many times she had seen magic. It amazed her every time. He saw her astonishment and he laughed. "Can you not do that?" He asked her, sitting back down.
Hermione shook her head. "No…I can't do anything…magical."
The blonde girl's jaw dropped. "How can you live without magic?"
Hermione shrugged. "Always have."
"I'm Lillian." The blonde girl smiled. "Lillian Fairchild. And that, is Harry Potter." She
pointed to the raven haired boy. "Ron Weasley." She pointed to a red headed boy. "Ginny Weasley."
She pointed to red headed girl. "And Draco Malfoy." She pointed to a blonde boy, rolling her eyes a
little, but smiling at Draco. "And you are…?"
"Hermione." Hermione said smiling. "Really, I can't believe they let you in Hogsmeade, I would have thought that after all that's happened…" She saw Harry's face fall. "Oh, um, sorry. I didn't mean…"
"Don't worry about it." He said. "I'm a little surprised too. But they let us."
"Cant say I'm complaining." Ron said grinning as he put down his glass.
Lillian laughed and shook her head. Hermione smiled and said, "Well, I mean, I should probably get back to work. Nice to meet you guys."
"You too. Hope we see you again. You should come by the school sometime with your mum." Lillian suggested.
"Bye." She said.
"Bye!" they all chorused back. She watched them from the corner of her eye a lot, hearing them talk and laugh and act like normal wizard teenagers. Oh, how she wished she could be one of them. But she wasn't.
When she spilled the drink on Harry, she had that immediate feeling that he was going to hit her. He was a man, that was he supposed to do, at least she thought. He seemed to know something was wrong though, and she didn't know how or why, all she was glad for was the fact that he didn't hit her.
Lillian had treated her like any other friend. No one had ever talked to her like that before; no one had ever accepted her so easily. And she only knew them for a few minutes. Maybe her mother teaching at Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad for her after all.
~
Hermione hung up her apron and watched as Emma sat at the bar, tapping her fingers in boredom.
"Hey, Emma. Wanna walk around Hogsmeade for a bit? We don't have to get back home right quick." Hermione asked her younger sister.
"Yay!" Emma jumped up from her seat exclaiming. "That'd be fun!"
"Kay." Hermione smiled at her younger sister's enthusiasm. "C'mon."
They walked through Hogsmeade, really exploring it for the first time. They passed by stores and homes, wizards and witches. Everything they saw amazed them; they were being opened up to a whole new world, little by little each day.
Hermione saw a shop called Honeydukes that caught her eye. "Wanna go in there, Em? It's got candy and stuff."
"Yes!" Emma said, jumping up and down.
"Let's go in then, come." Hermione led her sister inside and marveled at the bubbling store, candy all over the place. Things called sugar quills, chocolate frogs, ice mice, licorice wands and Drooble's best blowing gum.
She walked slowly through the store, keeping an eye on her bouncing sister, who was skipping through the store, picking up candy and inspecting it while the storekeeper spoke to her kindly.
It marveled her how welcoming this world could feel after not being here that long. Sure, there were several unsavory characters around, but a lot of them were nice and warm hearted. But of course, with everything going on in the wizardry world lately, everyone had their bad days. A terribly evil wizard called Lord Voldemort's spirit had been reincarnated into his body, and any day now, he could show up. Finishing his quest to kill all that stood in his way. Years ago, before he first was defeated, there were many wizards and witches who gladly stood up to him, only to find them selves tortured or killed.
Luckily, the wizardry community found hope in the family of the Potter's. The name of James Potter was spoken very carefully around Hogsmeade, and the rest of the wizardry society. He had been killed by Lord Voldemort, when his secret keeper, Peter Pettigrew, had given up where he and his family were hiding from this all-powerful wizard. James held Voldemort off for a while, until he found himself killed.
Meanwhile, Lily Potter had been upstairs trying desperately to save her son from the wrath of Voldemort, as well as herself. She had found she could not apparate out, and thought she was to meet her death. It was the only way she could save her son, Harry. However, when she met Voldemort face to face a minute later and refused to get out of the pathway of the killing curse meant for Harry, Voldemort cast the curse anyways. She managed to dodge it, keeping Harry out of harms way, and his second attempt had hit Harry. When she thought all way lost as she saw the green bolt of magic hit her son, she watched as it bounced off of Harry and hit Lord Voldemort. And with a piercing scream, he dropped to the floor. His soul left his body. It was over.
Lily and Harry Potter had grieved at their loss for several years, and now…they're having to deal with the same fear of a man who almost killed them earlier.
That's when it occurred to her. Her jaw literally dropped. She had met Harry. Harry Potter. Harry James Potter, the boy-who-lived. She had been too busy with her work to recognize the name. How could she have forgotten that name? She had books on him. She had read about him. And she had now met him. Harry Potter.
"Hermione?" She heard a chipper voice call from behind her.
She spun around and saw Emma standing there, licorice wand sticking in her mouth. "Em?"
"Hi! I got one of these thingies. That nice lady over there got it for me. She said its called a licorice wand." Emma smiled and pointed to the store keeper behind the counter.
"That's nice, Emma. But please be careful when you take things from people in the future." Hermione said, picking up a pack of sugar quills, moving to the counter and pulling out her pouch to pay for them. "And don't point."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Are we going to see mummy tonight?"
Hermione thought about this for a minute. Yes? No? I have no idea. Probably not. "Maybe, Em, maybe."
Emma sighed and shrugged as they walked out of the door and strolled back to their cottage. Imagine their surprise when they opened the door to an array of wonderful smells filling the cottage.
"What the…" Hermione looked around in confusion and Emma grinned broadly.
"Girls!!" Elizabeth Granger called, coming out of the kitchen cheerfully.
"Mummy!" Emma said, running to her mum and hugging her tightly.
Hermione walked slowly to her mother, still trying to take sight of what was going on. "Mum…what are you
doing?"
Elizabeth smiled widely. "Cooking dinner, of course! I haven't seen my girls in a day or two!"
Okay, what was going on here? "Yeah…but, mum. Why are you…cooking?" Hermione asked, trying to make sense of a confusing situation.
"Because we have to eat." Elizabeth replied, as a matter-of-factly.
"Well, yes…" Hermione said impatiently. "But why are YOU cooking dinner?"
"Because I'm tired of all that rubbish we eat sometimes." Elizabeth smiled. "Now, come on. Get washed up. Dinner's almost ready."
Emma looked to Hermione questioningly and Hermione shrugged, leading her sister down the hall. "That's weird." Emma said. "I've only seen mum bake cookies. The kind of cookies that you keep frozen, peel apart and stick on a cookie sheet. And that's only when she has to tell us something, or she's sad." Emma pointed out.
Hermione laughed. "Yes, well…At least we don't have to rely on take out or MY cooking."
"That's for sure." Emma snorted. Hermione playfully glared at her sister and they washed their hands, returning to dinner.
They returned to the dinner table and sat down as a family. A broken family, Hermione concluded. But more or less…a family.
Her mother sat down and the dinner appeared in front of the table. After the meal, their mother set out pumpkin pie.
"So, girls, how did you like it?"
"Delicious, mum! Really, it was amazing. Much better then when I cook." Hermione smiled.
"It really was good, mum." Emma said, agreeing with Hermione. "Thanks."
"Sure, I'm happy to do it. After all, I never see you. Look, I know we've had some very difficult times before." Elizabeth said, causing Hermione to look down. "But I am ready to move on. It's a new life, a new beginning. We need to be ready to experience our new life. Together."
Emma grinned, but Hermione just averted her eyes from her mother's and sister's. Her mother cleaned it up with the wand, and bade they goodbye with a hug, returning to Hogwarts once more.
~~
Hermione sat reading a section of a book about Harry Potter on the sofa in front of the fire. It was past midnight and she couldn't sleep, so she did the one thing she could think of: read. She didn't know what possessed her to choose this particular subject, but it had been on her mind for the past few hours.
When done with the passage, she set it aside with a yawn. She curled up against the cushions and gazed into the red and orange burning flames. She now had a mission: Learn magic. She was going to do it. She didn't know how, she didn't know when. But sometime, before this short live of hers ended, she was going to learn it. Even if she had to do it alone.
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A/n: I don't think this chapter is what most of you expected, and I know it was short. As much as I love long chapters and it revolving around more than just one day, you have to understand that with this new story, the beginning may include some history and maybe some short chapters as she begins to learn about the world, and her new friends!! :)
Not sure how much you like it. So, message to you: Review, luv, review. Thanks.
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