Fifteen-year-old Hermione Granger wanted this summer to be different. She decided to spend it in the small, beautiful English village called Ottery St. Catchpole where her Great Aunt lived. All she wanted was a little laid-back time to catch up on some reading, but her summer days turned into something more when she met Ron—an awkward, childish, slightly annoying, lanky redhead with freckled-face and the brightest blue eyes. Hermione slowly fell for this boy, but Ron was strange and his family was far from ordinary. Curiosity kept pushing Hermione into trying to unravel his family's big secrets. Turned out, their secrets might not be too far from her own unspeakable ones after all.
A/N: Hey all! This is my first fanfic. It's slightly AU. I'm not usually a big fan of AU stories because that's how much I love our Queen Jo, but this idea came to mind and I started having so much fun with it. I'm not much of a writer honestly, and English is not my first language so this story might not be up there in terms of language. I've also never been to England (can someone please take me there?) and I live on the other side of the world so this story might not be that accurate in terms of setting description.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just in case you're wondering...
Ottery St. Catchpole was all that Hermione Granger had hoped it would be. A small sleepy village—it was tucked safely among its surrounding forest-covered hills as if it wanted no disturbance. On one side, lining the main road that led to the entrance of the village, lied green meadows that would welcome any visitors with their charm. Flocks of sheep could be seen grazing there; excited shepherd dogs not far away, eyeing them closely. When the Devon sun lowered down at the end of each day, their tiny silhouettes would dance lazily on the green canvas that stretched all the way to the hills.
Lovely. That was the first thing that came to Hermione's mind when she first caught sight of the place she was going to call home this summer. Her eyes grew wider as she approached the heart of the village where the only church and all the tiny shops were. She liked the way that the buildings were not 200-feet high and they were not covered in lights and dizzying big screens. She knew from the very beginning that this was going to be a different kind of holiday.
The Grangers tradition when it came to holidays had always been 'travelling with the family'. They always found the holidays the perfect opportunity for some quality family time. It was not that the family needed all-planned-out get-togethers to save themselves—the family functioned just very well naturally. However, Mr. and Mrs. Granger promised themselves that they would take any possible chances available out there to let their daughter have enjoyable holidays. Besides, they definitely loved spending time with her when it was not during school days. Their clever, diligent, brilliant, school-loving, forever-reading-books little girl could get a little bit worked up when it came to her studies— not that Hermione minded it at all.
But this little get-away had been a last-minute plan, at least in Hermione's standard. Since last year, she and her parents were settled with the plan described as a tropical summer in Thai paradise. However, just over a month ago, her parents suddenly decided to take part in a dentistry symposium in German. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were both dentists and were very passionate about their field of work. The new plan was that the family would fly to Berlin, spend a couple of days there, and then fly off to Bangkok. Hermione's parents did not mind missing some of the later parts of the symposium for the sake of their holiday plan. As for Hermione, she was just agreeing to whatever plans her parents made. By that time she was too busy preparing for her exams to care about something like the holiday anyway.
During those busy days, Hermione had to alter her study schedule for a distant cousin's wedding, which annoyed her, but she went anyway as her parents had insisted for her to attend the reception with them. It was during that event Hermione made a big change of plan. She met her Great-Aunt Tiffany whom she only ever met a couple times before but had heard of so many times from her mother's stories. Mrs. Granger used to spend some of the summers of her younger days in the beautiful village of Ottery St. Catchpole with her Aunt Tiffany. Hermione made up her mind then: she was going to have her summer a little different this time. It was not going to be another family holiday. She was fifteen and she wanted a little 'independent' escape and it was just perfect that she had the option of choosing an old scenic English countryside village as her destination. Born and raised among the hustle bustle of London, she felt inspired to get herself some laid-back time. She had pictured herself sitting in an old coffee shop while the local people would go about their lives around her. The weather would be cooling, the quietness calming, and the fresh air filling her with peace as she did what she loved the most in this whole wide world— reading.
And that was exactly what Hermione was doing in that little coffee shop since this morning. It was officially her first day in Ottery St. Catchpole as she had arrived only yesterday's evening. She had passed by that coffee shop on her way to Great-Aunt Tiffy's house. She fell in love with it right away. It was a small old building that literally looked like it had been squeezed forcefully between two identical shop houses. Its maroon brick walls could hardly be seen from the outside as they were almost fully covered with vine. Little green leaves spilled from every part of the walls to the pavement, black-brown roots snaked behind them. Although this whole village was already almost hidden by the hills, this coffee shop certainly took it to a different level. It seemed like all it was trying very hard to do was hide itself deeper.
Near its door, Hermione could read its modest wooden plank: Sophie's Coffee (and Tea!) since 1921. It was getting dark when Hermione had arrived there yesterday but she managed to get a glimpse of the lighted room inside. Lovely, she thought for the second time that hour.
So today, after a hearty breakfast at her host's place and a short morning walk around the village, Hermione had retreated to the purple armchair by the window at Sophie's Coffee with a book in her hand and an empty cup of coffee on her table. She finally looked up when an old lady in her sixties entered and walked across the room impatiently. Dear Aunt Tiffy, although really kind at heart, always had the look on her face as if she was 28 hours late for her own wedding and then found out that her wedding cake had been white and not yellow.
She loved yellow very much.
"Hi Aunt Tiffy," Hermione smiled to the approaching lady in bright yellow floral dress.
"Hmm," the lady sat down across the table. "Told you I was coming down to have lunch with you, yes? We'll order sandwiches! The Bennetts— descendants of Sophia Bennet, I mean, yes!—they make delicious sandwiches!" With that she hastily stood up and went to the counter. Hermione just chuckled. She definitely needed some getting-used-to when it came to dealing with her Great Aunt.
Waiting, she took a deep breath and sat back on her armchair. She was half pondering, half enjoying the view of the streets outside when her attention was grabbed by a group of young people passing by—their glaring, red hair gleaming under the sun as they walked side by side, chattering excitedly while giving each other light punches on the shoulder every now and then.
There were four of them. Two boys were frighteningly identical. It was not just their looks; even their movements seemed somehow synchronised. They seemed to be the main talkers and were giving each other meaningful looks every so often. Between them was a girl who looked the youngest, probably about 13 years old. Her long silky yet fiery hair bounced lightly behind her as she trampled with an exaggerated angry expression on her face, her arms akimbo, which seemed to make the others laugh. Next to one of the twins, closest to Hermione's window, was a tall, lanky boy with noticeably more freckles than the others and had the brightest, bluest eyes Hermione had ever seen. She never really paid much attention to people's eyes—heck, she rarely cared about people's appearance. She secretly believed and hoped that the less she gave a hoot about how others looked the less attention would others give to her appearance as well. She was never confident with the way she looked: big bushy brown hair (that greeted her with her own personal war every morning), big teeth (which actually were already taken care of by her parents) that were the centre of her friends' name-calling since kindergarten, her too-skinny body that seemed out of proportion compared to her giant puffy hair, and the list went on.
But, those blue eyes outside the window, they were exceptionally captivating. When he laughed his eyes turned into this ocean of happiness which reminded Hermione of that holiday in Cannes when she was—
"Those strange folks! They are back, I see!" Aunt Tiffy's voice and the sound of plates shoved to the table yanked Hermione out of the strange, strange world that was clouding her mind. She felt herself blushing and immediately cursed herself for being such a girl.
"Thanks, Aunt Tiffy," she pulled her plate closer. She got a weak snort as a reply. As she began eating, she fought the urge to look back to catch a glimpse of the group again. She really did not have to gawk at them, right? That was unnecessary and might even be inappropriate. She mentally shrugged.
"What about them, Aunt Tiffy?" Hermione asked after a while, merely to bend the silence at the table. "You know, those people?"
"Those kids? They are a family, a very strange family, yes? They live nearby— outside the village though, don't worry dear! — but they never really get out of their funny home. They've got themselves a bit o' a farm, a small one I heard, but Lord knows how they really feed those children! I heard they've got a lot of children, all red-haired! Not a really friendly lot, I may say. Strange ones, I may say. But we don't mind 'em 'cause we rarely see them anyway!" Aunt Tiffy was loud. Hermione had learned that her aunt's hearing was not the best, which resulted in her loud-speaking habit, which Hermione quickly disliked but had to adapt to anyway.
"Oh," Hermione sighed. She was not particularly interested in this kind of small-town rumours. Besides, she had the feeling that this one had something to do with people's foolish prejudice against people with red hair. She always loathed how people seemed to look down on gingers. It was just a hair colour, for God sake! It had absolutely nothing to do with whether a person had a soul or not! Those bullies were definitely the soulless ones. Some of her friends at school did get bullied just because they were gingers, which infuriated her. Unfortunately, standing up for them also meant that she gave more chances for the idiots to pick on her.
She was starting to search for some other topics to talk about when she saw her aunt leaning forward. She felt obliged to do the same.
"Rumours have it that those... gingers... well," Aunt Tiffy casted a quick glance around the room to make sure no one was listening, "that... family is involved in some kind of... dark magic," whispered Aunt Tiffy, her eyes squinted as if to show how disgusted she was with the idea. "Well, no one cares about it anymore!" She sat back and waved her hand between them as if she was getting rid of an imaginary fly. "This place is as old as time and people can be stuck with their old funny stories. Not me, no! I never put my finger on such... Backwardness! These sandwiches are delicious, yes?"
Hermione could hardly register anything that her aunt had said after the mention of that. That... word always gave her a shiver and made her uncomfortable. She fidgeted in her seat as she forced herself to do what she had done a million times before when something got dangerously close to that. She shook her head as she needed to clear her mind. "Uh, er, sorry, I- you were saying?"
"These sandwiches? You like them, yes? Delicious, yes?"
They tasted just like any other sandwiches. "Yes- uh, yeah," Hermione smiled. Unconsciously, she shook her head again as she continued looking down at her meal. It was not because she did not like the sandwich; she simply needed the extra push in holding back the dangerous thoughts that were nudging an old rusty gate in her mind. They were ready to flood in, but she would not let it. With a long exhale—a method she had devised when it came to situations like this— she managed to look up, smiling at her Aunt.
"This place is lovely, Aunt Tiffy, by the way. Thanks for taking me in."
"Hermione! Hermione! Your mother's on the phone!" Aunt Tiffy hollered from downstairs.
Hermione, who was rummaging through her rucksack searching for her new History textbook, which she was sure she had brought, quickly stood up. Her mother had called on her first evening there, and now that she was calling again Hermione accepted the fact that this would be the drill for the rest of the summer.
"HerMIONE!" Another bellow came from downstairs.
"Coming!" Hermione grunted. She was still frustrated that she could not find her textbook and her Aunt's impatience was really not helping with her mood.
"Hey Mum," she said as soon as she got on the phone.
"Hey sweetheart," replied her mother cheerfully. "I hope my dear Aunt Tiffany is not giving you a hard time."
Hermione sighed and glanced at her Aunt who was now busy in the kitchen. "Well, she is kind of loud."
"Told you," her mother snickered.
"Well, I could use a bit of patience, but no, she's been very kind."
"Yeah, I always thought she's really sweet. She just has a different way of showing it."
"Yeah, I guess. How are you and Dad?"
"We miss you!"
"I miss you too, both of you," Hermione smiled. They've only been apart not more than two days.
"So what are you up to?"
"I was just in my room, unpacking some things. This morning I had the chance to walk around the village. I spent the rest of the day at a coffee shop, reading."
Hermione heard her mother gasped. "Sophie's Coffee?"
"Yeah!"
"Lovely place! I miss that little shop. And your day sounds lovely."
"Yeah it was."
"So, what are you going to do after this? Bedtime yet?"
"Well, no. It's a bit too early for that. I'm just going to do a little bit of studying. I'm still intending to get back to school prepared."
Mrs. Granger sighed. "I knew it! We shouldn't have let you spend your holiday by yourself. You definitely still need parental guidance."
This time it was Hermione's turn to snicker. "Mom, you—"
"You need to spend the holiday with us, young woman, so that we can fulfil our basic duties as parents."
"And what exactly are those duties, may I ask?" Hermione laughed.
"Well, one of them is definitely making sure that our child does not spend her whole summer studying. That's downright illegal!"
Hermione threw herself on the nearest sofa and laughed her heart out. "It's amazing how very supportive my parents are!"
After a couple minutes of more bantering, the mother and daughter finally said their good nights. Hermione put the phone down and smiled to herself; it's been a lovely day indeed. She thought about what tomorrow might hold for her. She could not wait to spend more hours reading in that little coffee shop — maybe she could bring some of her study materials over this time so she could start covering some of her school works. She did in fact intend to go back to school ready. She did not see why she should neglect her studies simply because she was trying to have a good summertime.
A/N: Reviews? Even grammar-inferi are welcome. I'd like to be able to improve my writing.
Cheers!
-LifeOfAPortkey
