Chapter 9 - Dinner at The Potters
Hermione looked at herself in the mirror, relieved to see her transformation from earlier that afternoon. She had taken a quick shower and put on a pair of tailored pants, a v-neck sweater and flats so she could go over to Harry and Ginny's for dinner.
Instead of a bushy mess, her hair fell in sleek ringlets around her shoulders. In recent months, she had finally found a line of hair potions that worked for her and a great muggle stylist who catered to his clientele with wavy and curly hair. Being a muggleborn witch had its advantage in that she could utilize the best of both worlds.
Her stomach growled again, she was both hungry and nervous. Harry had meant well in inviting her to dinner as he didn't want her to be alone, but facing Ginny was going to be hard, given that it was from her brother she had just separated. She was looking forward to seeing Lily though. Although Ginny did spoil her, she was generally a sweet natured, happy little girl. She just had to remember not to say anything about the split in front of her niece, be pleasant to Ginny and enjoy the food.
Hermione grabbed a lightweight jean jacket and her bag and headed next door.
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Ginny was finalizing the preparations for dinner, while Harry and Lily helped her set the table when the doorbell rang.
"That's Aunt Hermione." Harry announced as he and Lily headed to the door to greet her.
Harry opened the door and he noticed how pretty she looked, especially compared to when he left her an hour ago. When he saw her at work, she usually wore her hair up in a knot and she was covered in her legal robes. But instead she was dressed in casual muggle attire that showed off her slim figure.
He was about to tell her how nice she looked when Lily threw herself at her aunt. Hermione laughed as she bent down to hug the little redhead.
"Aunt Hermione, I'm so glad you're here! I can't wait to show you my new Cleansweep!"
"Lily!" Ginny's stern voice came from the kitchen. "You can show your aunt your new broom after dinner. Go sit at the table."
"Yes, mum." Lily said as she took Hermione's hand and led her to the table, with Harry bringing up the rear.
"You can sit here." Lily said, pointing to a chair. "This is usually Al's chair, but he's at school. I miss him."
"Thank you very much, Lily. I am honored to sit in Al's chair." Hermione said, taking her seat as Lily ran to the other side of the table to sit in her chair.
"Do you miss James, too?" She asked.
"Not as much as Al, he's nice to me." Lily shook her head. "James teases me all the time. He doesn't like my hair `cause he pulls on it and calls me a tomato. He and Al have black hair, like Daddy. I like your hair, Aunt Hermione. It looks so pretty with the curls."
"Yes, Aunt Hermione's hair does look very nice." Harry agreed, winking at his daughter.
Hermione blushed. "Thank you."
Ginny came into the dining room with the food on a large tray. "Dinner's ready." She announced.
"Hello, Hermione." She said with a tight smile.
Hermione beamed back. "Hi Ginny, thanks for having me over tonight."
"You're welcome. Harry and I didn't want you to eat alone with Ron out of town. Where did he go?" Ginny asked, as she started to dish out the food.
Hermione gave Harry a quick glance, the charade was starting.
"Um, he went to Ireland for a couple of days to meet with their Aurors."
"That's very unusual for Ron to have to go out of town, isn't it?" Ginny continued.
Harry gave Ginny a stern look to stop her fake interrogation of Hermione. Ginny's eyes narrowed.
"Well, I'm the one who sent him." Harry interjected, as he tucked into his meatloaf. "They actually wanted me to go, but I couldn't skip taking Lily to the Harpies/Ravens game tomorrow, so Ron volunteered."
"Speaking of the game," Hermione gave Harry a grateful look as she turned her attention to Lily, "I hear this is your first real Quidditch match."
"Oh, yes. I'm looking forward to it. Mum says I might be able to meet some of the players and get their autographs! I'm bringing my new autograph book with me tomorrow."
As they continued to eat dinner, the safe topic of Lily's first game and her new broomstick carried them through for most of the main course. Hermione thought her enthusiasm was cute, even if she did tend to go on a bit about the game. She supposed that she got that from her mother.
"The food is really good, Gin. You really outdid yourself." Harry said.
Ginny gave him a fake smile. "Thank you, Harry."
"Yeah, it was very good, Ginny. My meatloaf is never as good as yours. I would love the recipe." Hermione said.
"Well, this is my mum's secret recipe." Ginny replied. "I don't think she'd want me giving it away."
"But I'm a Weasley." Hermione reminded her. "I don't think she'd mind."
"Of course, Hermione." Ginny said, her smile even tighter. "I don't know why, for some reason I forgot that you were still a Weasley."
"Ginny?" Harry interrupted. "What's for dessert?"
"Dessert? We're having some fresh berries."
"Berries?" Lily asked. "We always have berries. I was hoping that we'd have pumpkin pie since Aunt Hermione is here."
"Lily, pumpkins aren't in season yet. We're having berries."
"Berries are fine, thank you Ginny." Hermione said. "Lily, I'll tell you what, when pumpkins are in season, you can come over and bake with me. Would you like that?"
Before Lily could answer, Ginny responded. "Oh, Lily's going to be very busy with her lessons and learning how to fly on her new broom. I doubt she'll have time for baking."
Hermione could see what Ginny was trying to do - she didn't want her to have any additional bonding time with her daughter.
"But I want to bake with Aunt Hermione, please mum?"
"Lily, your Aunt Hermione just took a new job, where she's going to be traveling a lot over the next few months. I doubt she'll have time to bake with you. I'll bake a pumpkin pie with you when they're in season, okay, sweetie?"
Ginny gave Hermione a look to back off. Seeing Lily's disappointed face, she said, "Your mother's right, Lily. I am going to be traveling a lot soon, and I'm not sure if I will have time to bake with you. But I promise you, that we will do something fun together when I'm home."
Lily seemed to be okay with that. She even ate her berries when Ginny served them to her.
Once dinner was over, Hermione offered to help Ginny clear the table but Ginny refused.
"Lily, why don't you show your aunt your new broom? Harry can help me clean up."
Harry gave Hermione a helpless look as Ginny gave him a push towards the table. Harry picked up the dirty dishes and brought them into the kitchen.
"I can't believe her nerve." Ginny muttered, as she cast a "muffilato" spell around the kitchen so Lily and Hermione couldn't hear them.
"What are you talking about, Gin?"
"Hermione! Trying to spend time alone with Lily."
"What's wrong with that? She's her niece! They're alone right now, in case you didn't notice."
"That's different - Lily's under our roof. Think about it, Harry, she'll be a divorcee soon. She'll have all sorts of strange men coming and going. Do you want to expose your daughter to those kinds of morals?"
Harry had to laugh. He couldn't picture Hermione with a revolving door of various suitors. Although, Ginny had a point that she might begin dating eventually. It was something he hadn't considered and he felt a twinge of jealousy.
"Ginny, this is Hermione we're talking about. She's the most responsible person we know. Even if she were going to date, I don't think it would be for a long time. And I know she wouldn't expose Lily to that."
"Maybe, but I'm just not comfortable with the idea of Lily being alone with her."
"You don't trust her?" Harry asked.
"No, I don't. I trusted her with my brother's heart and she broke it."
"Oh come on, Ginny. It was Ron's idea to separate."
"Yeah, because he was miserable that she didn't love him anymore. I saw it - I knew this was going to happen eventually. You can't say that you didn't see it coming either."
"Well, I knew they were having problems but I thought maybe they would work them out." Harry said. "I suppose I was wrong."
"Yeah, you were. And I can I ask you something? Where is your allegiance to Ron, Harry? Why did we have Hermione over tonight when we could've had Ron?"
"Oh come on Ginny. You didn't even know about the split until I told you about it. You said it yourself - your stupid brother couldn't have bothered to tell you the news himself!"
"Don't call Ron stupid!" Ginny yelled.
"I didn't, Ginny. I'm just repeating what you said!" Harry yelled back.
"Fine, throw my words back in my face. I was just upset when I said that. I didn't mean it literally!" Ginny threw up her hands. "You know what? I don't even want to deal with you right now. I'll finish the dishes and you go out and spend time with your precious Hermione."
She turned her back on him to start the dishes, so Harry stared at her for a moment in disbelief and then turned to leave the kitchen.
He found Hermione and Lily sitting in the living room chatting about her broom.
"Is everything okay, Harry?" Hermione asked, seeing how flushed he looked.
"Yeah, everything's fine." He turned his attention to his daughter. "Hey, munchkin, I think Aunt Hermione's heard enough about your broom. It's getting close to your bedtime, why don't you go brush your teeth? I'll be in later to read you a story, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy." Lily said as she gave Hermione a hug. "Good-night Aunt Hermione, I hope to see you soon. Maybe you can watch me fly sometime!"
"That sounds great, Lily. Just be careful okay?"
Hermione and Harry watched as Lily scampered up the stairs to her bedroom, broom in hand.
"She's getting so big." Hermione mused. "She looks more and more like her mother everyday."
"Yeah, she does." Harry agreed. "Let's hope she doesn't start acting like her."
"Did you have another row?"
"Yeah, she thinks I'm choosing you over Ron."
"I see….well aren't you?" Hermione was reminded of their conversation earlier today.
Harry nodded. "I suppose I am. But I have no regrets about that."
"I hope those words don't come back to haunt you, Harry."
"I hope not either," Harry sighed.
"Listen, I think it's time I go." Hermione stood up and grabbed her jacket from the sofa's arm and headed for the front door.
"Thanks for dinner, but in the future I hope you don't mind if I turn down the invitation?"
Harry chuckled. "Yeah, I won't take it personally."
"Give Lily a goodnight kiss for me." Hermione said as she stood on tiptoe to give Harry a kiss on the cheek.
Before she left, Harry grabbed her hand. "Hey, we're still on for Sunday, right?"
"Sunday," she repeated. "I'm looking forward to it."
Hermione let go of his hand and walked out the front door. Harry stood in the doorway and watched her go, unaware that Ginny had been watching and listening to their good-byes.
TBC
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