Chapter 1
Almost four years after the defeat of Tom Riddle and Hermione still slept with her wand firmly strapped to her left forearm. As she quickly blinked away any threat of tears and she willed her lungs to return to a normal breathing rate, she unsheathed her wand and wordlessly cast a soft Lumos charm to survey her room.
Crookshanks laying undisturbed at the foot of her bed. Check. Her bookshelf remaining static, all books untouched from where she'd left them the day prior. Check. The window, still closed and locked giving no hint of the sunrise that was sure to soon come. Check. Her closet, open, revealing her handful of robes and spartan amount of clothing. Check. The large cauldron on the desk still bubbling under an invisible fire. Check.
As Hermione methodically went through the inventory of her little room, she slowly relaxed an inch more with each item she catalogued. At last, as she registered the cheerful poster of the Holyhead Harpies which Ginny had insisted on hanging on her wall, did she turn off the soft light on her wand and sink back down onto her pillow. She fooled around with the idea of going back to sleep, even as she knew that the likelihood of that happening was as high as Kreature deciding to bring her a cup of tea to wake her up in the mornings from now on. So instead she sighed, rubbed her eyes and left the warmth of her bed to start the day.
Today was an important day. It was little Teddy's birthday and there was to be a party in his honour. Quidditch themed, if Hermione remembered correctly; and as she stepped out of her room and into one of the corridor's of Grimmauld Place she almost smacked her face against a toy snitch. Yes, she did remember correctly. Hermione turned on the light for the first floor and was met with an explosion of sporting decoration. Harry must've stayed up late doing all of this, she thought warmly to herself as she ducked under a slowly moving bludger that hurtled her way. Her quiet friend had obviously not wanted to interrupt her early night in and took it upon himself to convert the house into his godson's fantasy and the result, Hermione could not deny, was quite spectacular. The walls were now draped to the effect that each corridor seemed like a tunnel leading to a quidditch pitch. Toy brooms, bats and quaffle's were scattered about while child-proofed snitches and bludgers flew around the corridors. As endearing as this all was, Hermione hoped Harry didn't decide to keep the redecoration as a permanent fixture in the house - those bludgers alone were a serious threat to health and safety.
As she was musing this, Harry stepped out of his room still in pyjama's and caught sight of her. "Bit much?" He asked with a huge grin.
"Not at all. It's quite subtle, in my opinion." Hermione replied, both of them laughing now. "Breakfast?"
"Yeah, Ginny's coming in a few hours with the cake."
"Let me guess - a snitch?"
"I'm surprised you didn't take NEWT Divination." Harry teased.
By the time they reached the bottom floor, dodging and jumping Harry's obstacle course, the sun was slowly pouring through the little window in the kitchen, illuminating the large table that stood in the centre of the room. Half of it was covered under small piles of books, documents, parchments and ink pots; the other half had freshly cooked breakfast waiting for the friends. Against Hermione's wishes, Kreature insisted on being a house elf that lived up to the standard expected of such an ancient and revered house.
"I really think we should pay him." Hermione muttered as she sat down.
"He won't take our money." Harry replied absently, having had variants of this conversation every single morning since they had moved in. The routine provided them a certain comfort, a reassurance to them both after a night of bad dreams that they were back in normality. When the war ended and Hermione had found herself with nowhere concrete to stay, Harry had offered her lodgings with him in Grimmauld Place - the house was far too big for him, especially when Ginny was touring, she'd be doing him a favour. Hermione had insisted that it would only be temporary, she didn't want to intrude on his and Ginny's life; but they soon realised that the proximity did them all good - they were all still too scared and too young and too used to each others company to really go off on their own.
"Is Fleur coming?" Hermione asked as she buttered her toast.
"Yeah, so are the Lovegood's - it's going to be a full house; especially as Teddy's quite popular at his nursery. I think he invited his whole class." Harry took a sip of orange juice. "I think I remember Bill said something about Fleur doing some research on blood magic...?"
"Yeah, Fleur mentioned some healing rituals they perform in Veela clans last time we saw each other - could you pass the eggs? - so I asked her if she could go into it a bit more detail for me, I'm starting a new research project."
"So soon? You just wrapped up your last book." Harry asked as he poured himself some tea and took a crumpet from the small pile Creature had baked that morning.
"You know me - can't sit still for too long." Hermione smiled, handing Harry the sugar. "Plus, now with the updated version of Hogwarts a History out of the way, I can concentrate on a proper research study instead of being limited to stand-alone essays in journals."
"What are you going to focu-" Harry stopped mid-sentence, his eyes flashing as he heard the door open. Hermione herself froze, wishing that the knife in her hand was her wand and not silverware. But then the voices of Ron and George filled the halls, allowing both friends to start breathing again.
"Wow, mate. Careful there, you might just spoil Teddy." Ron said with a huge grin as he opened the kitchen door, allowing a bludger to zoom in.
"I'm glad to see Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' trial version of party decoration has been successful." George said with a smile. "The room next to the bathroom refuses to give up it's Valentine's Day theme. Although I'm not sure whether that has more to do with my charms than with the room taking a fancy with being covered in heart-shaped confetti."
"George Weasley, you will have me to answer to if I have to dodge snitches every time I leave my room." Hermione said curtly as she passed the two boys the pot of tea.
"Which is why I'm here early." He said grinning back at her. "There's a charm or two I need to cast to make sure the bludgers don't get steadily more aggressive... and that the walls don't merge with the new drapery."
Hermione rose from her chair. "Well then, boys. Let's get this party started."
Three and a half hours later and the party was in full swing. Small children flew rampant on toy broomsticks, high on sugar while adoring parents ran after them taking photos.
"Soh cute, and yet soh messy." Fleur commented with her head cocked to the side as a small, golden haired boy made a mess of himself trying to eat a feisty chocolate frog whilst trying to navigate on his toy broom.
"I don't see the cute at all." Hermione replied handing Fleur a cold butterbeer.
"That's what they all say." Andromeda said joining the conversation. "But I suppose if there's anyone I know who would stick to their guns it's you."
Hermione chuckled. "I hope. I can just see the frogspawn splattered all over my books."
"Talking about your books. I have compiled my notes for you. I hope they can be of help." Fleur said as the three witches moved towards the sanctuary of the kitchen.
"That's fantastic! I've been dying to compare certain blood rituals with a particular strand of theoretical magic because I've found these papers published a while ago -"
"Slow down, dear!" Andy said with a laugh. "I haven't heard someone so excited about theoretical magic for a long time."
"Fleur! This is fantastic!" Hermione exclaimed as her eyes ran down the neat handwriting. "Thank you so much for including the calculations to predict effectiveness and strength of the rituals. I wouldn't have known where to start."
"It was no trouble, 'ermione." Fleur said with a gentle smile. "Just send me copy of your work once you finish."
"You'll have more than that, you are definitely going to be mentioned in the credits." Hermione replied, looking up from the notes smiling with the same unabashed glee as all the children running outside the room. "Could you just explain that formula to me because I'd like to run some of Hippocrates' theories through it."
"Wait..." Andy interrupted. "Did you just say Hippocrates?"
"Yeah," Hermione replied with her eyebrows furrowed. "You're the first person who recognises the name."
"I have a feeling I know why."
"He seems to have only published two papers; both years apart and both absolutely extraordinary. But they were both published in the most obscure Turkish journal I only happened to come across because someone had used copies of it to balance a nightstand that was rickety." Hermione babbled. "It's so annoying, the magazine has been discontinued for over a decade and one of the articles has been ripped in half and I have no idea how to find the other half. Plus, nothing but treaties on ancient greek medicine come up when I try and look for other works published under his name."
"That's because Hippocrates is a pseudonym -" Andy started.
"Well, yes, I figured that much out, but it does leave me with no idea how to find him."
"You can start by referring to Hippocrates as a 'her'" The older witch said, quite amused, despite herself, at the look of confusion the other two women gave her.
"Andy, wait... are - are you Hipp-"
Andromeda Tonks let out a long deep laugh. "No, no, no, no, dear child. I never had the patience nor the mind for theoretical magic." She said still laughing, until a small sad smile replaced the mirth on her face. "My sister, Narcissa, on the other hand, well -" she stopped briefly to take a sip of her drink and look down at her worn hand. "Lets just say Cissy was the most wasted mind of her age. Father didn't approve of the idea of women in academia - 'not a woman's place' - he said whenever Cissy asked him for permission to publish anything. Marrying her off to a traditionalist like Malfoy, well, that killed any chance of her being able to think for herself. Those two papers -" Andy said, gesturing towards Hermione with her cup. "Were her two acts of rebellion; the first published after she got engaged to Malfoy; and the second, a few months after the first fall of Voldemort." Andy paused to properly analyse Hermione's reaction. The young woman sat in front of her looked torn between wanting to give it all up and absolutely possessed with curiosity. "If you are truly interested in finding out what the other half of her paper says, I would suggest sending Hippocrates a letter. With her husband long dead and her son married to Astoria Greengrass, I'm sure the company would be welcome. I also believe you'd be surprised how kind and reasonable Cissy is now that the darkness is gone. If anything has been a consolation from all that the war took away from me, is that its end gave me my sister back."
What do you think, guys? I hope you feel inclined to stick around, this might be one for the long-run.