A/N: Hey people! Here's the second chapter of Playing With Fire, I hope you like it! And a big thanks to Shyrazie, my first reviewer, and CherryBlosson7w7, unicorngirl14, and sunshine161

Also, thanks to Angel'sBFF! You're awesome!

~AngelxX

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does.

~*~*~*~*~*~ Chapter 2: Meeting the Family ~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione POV:

In front of me, were two people. The woman was a little taller than me, and had long, super curly black hair and was beaming at me, tears in her eyes. Next to her was a tall man with strait brown hair, the exact same color as mine. He smiled softly at me, his eyes warm behind a pair of black glasses.

"Hermione! Wow, you've grown so much since the last time I saw you!" the women gushed. She ran forward and hugged me. I froze for a second, then slowly hugged her back, less enthusiastically. I didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Hello Hermione," the man said softly, when his wife released me to mop the tears of her face. Thankfully, he didn't try to hug me. "How have you been?"

"Fine, how are you?" I replied, trying to be polite.

"I'm fine," he said, chuckling. I smiled weakly and looked at my feet. The house fell into an awkward silence.

"Um, hello, Mr. and Mrs. Harrow. I'm Jim Granger, and this is my wife, Alice." Dad said, probably trying to get rid of the awkwardness.

"Oh no, please call me Alastair!"

"Yes, and I'm Eliza. It's such a pleasure to meet you! You've done such an amazing job raising Hermione," she turned to me. "I've looked at your grades in Hogwarts. Outstanding in every class! That is simply brilliant, dear!"

I smiled at her. "Thank you, Mrs. Harrow."

"No, no, no, please call me mum!" she told me.

"Er…" I didn't feel very comfortable with that yet. I wasn't sure I'd ever be comfortable with that, actaully.

Mr. Harrow seemed to know what I was thinking, so he amended his wife's declaration. "Or at least Alastair and Elizabeth."

I nodded. I could live with that.

"Please, sit down." My mother (Alice) said.

When we had all settled into the couches surrounding the fire, Mrs.… Elizabeth looked at me.

"Hermione, dear," she stared, "I know this is hard and very sudden, but your father and I want you to come and live with us. We live down in Wiltshire, in Harrow Manor. There are lots of other people your age around there. They go to Hogwarts too, and we have quite a big library. I think you would be very happy there, but…" she trailed off, frowning.

"But we would understand if you wish to stay here with the Grangers. They have, after all, raised you all these years." Alastair finished.

I looked up at both of them. They were actually giving me a choice. I looked over at the Grangers. They had been my parents for so long…

I was tempted to say that I would stay here, but I knew that I would question that decision for years. I loved the Grangers, but I should at least give the Harrows a chance. They were my real parents, after all.

"Would it be alright," I began slowly, "If I stayed with you for a few months, then decide where I want to stay?"

Elizabeth smiled. "Why, of course, dear."

Alastair nodded. "That would be perfectly fine."

The Grangers and Harrows discussed trivial things for a little longer until Alastair stood and said, "Well, we should be going now. It was a pleasure meeting you, Jim, Alice."

"Yes, thank you so much for taking such good care of Hermione. We are forever in your debt." Elizabeth added.

"Oh, it was no problem, Eliza." Mrs. Granger said while Mr. Granger and Alastair exchanged parting words by the fireplace.

Then Alastair pulled a bag out of his pocket, took some glittering green powder from it, and handed the bag to his wife. Then he grabbed my trunk, which had been lying in the corner, and dragged it to the fireplace. After dropping the floo powder into the now green flames, he stepping into the hearth and clearly said, "Harrow Manor," then disappeared.

Elizabeth smiled at me as she too, took some powder, set the bag on the table, and then disappeared from the flames.

Then, Mrs. Granger turned to me and hugged me. "I'll miss you, Hermione!" She had refrained from crying this entire time, but started sobbing as I held on to her as tight as I could.

"I'll miss you too, mum," I whispered. "Remember, you'll always be my mother, no matter what."

She pulled away and gave me a watery smile.

Dad came and crushed me into a hug too. "Bye 'Mione. Be good and be safe, okay?"

I smiled. "I always am, dad."

I pulled away from him and stepped closer to the fire.

I turned back to the Grangers. "I love you both," I said.

"We love you too, Hermione." Mr. Granger said, tears streaking down his face.

"Don't forget us, sweetie," Mrs. Granger choked out, still sobbing.

"I would never forget you," I said. After one last hug for each of them, I took some floo powder from the bag on the table and stepped into the fire. "Harrow Manor!" I said, loudly and clearly.

The room spun out of view, and I had brief glimpses of other rooms before tumbling out into a large, fancy place with three people waiting for me.

I dusted myself off and looked up. What met my eyes was one of the prettiest rooms I had ever seen. It looked like something strait out of Pride and Prejudice!

There were huge cream-colored walls and wonderful dark, wooden floors. The overstuffed chairs and sofas were a dark blue color, matching the curtains, with white pillows strategically placed on them. There were huge double doors stationed in the wall on the right, and giant pillars in the corners reached all the way up to the high, arched ceiling.

"Welcome to Harrow Manor, Hermione." Alastair said.

"Do you like it?" Elizabeth inquired anxiously as I stared in awe at the massive windows that lined the right side of the room, and the smaller ones that were located above them.

"It's amazing!" I breathed. She grinned at me and I looked at her and Alastair properly for the first time since I got here. They were standing on either side of a smaller boy, with strait black hair and a huge smile on his face.

"Hey Hermione, I'm Aiden. It's so great to finally meet you!" he jumped forward and hugged me. "I've always wanted a sibling!"

I couldn't help but grin at his perkiness. It was contagious. "It's nice to meet you too, Aiden."

I backed away from me, still grinning. "Would you like me to show you around the manor?" he asked.

"Oh, that would be good for you two to bond!" Elizabeth said, looking at me.

"Yeah, that'd be wonderful," I agreed.

"Okay, come on!" Aiden said, a bounded forward and grabbed my arm, dragging me towards the door.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" I laughed. I never imagined it would be so fun to have a little brother. We came out of the huge room, and into an entrance hall by the front door.

Aiden chattered away the entire time. Aiden led me through a large hallway on the first floor and showed me the biggest rooms in the manor, including a magnificent ballroom and the kitchens, along with two of the three dining rooms. One was private and the other was for entertaining guests. Everything was elaborately decorated and looked so expensive that I was afraid to touch anything.

We ascended an enormous spiral staircase made of white marble, and navigated through the maze of hallways. Some of the rooms were the remaining dining room (also for entertaining), a conference room, and a gigantic indoor pool, complete with a diving board and waterslide.

The third floor had a study, a spa, and a few bedrooms, including Elizabeth and Alastair's room. On the fourth floor, Aiden showed me lots more bedrooms and an art studio. "Mum loves to paint," he explained. "It gives her something to do during the day."

On the fifth floor, there were many more rooms for many different purposes, but I was too tired to really pay attention. Then we headed back down to the fourth and I thought he was taking me to my room. On each of the floors, we had skipped many doors and hadn't even gone down many of the hallways. I wondered which of those led to my room. After such a long day, I was ready to go to bed.

But Aiden walked past all the doors and over to another staircase at the very end of the hall. We climbed up and he opened the door at the top, revealing a large room with black leather seats and white marble floors. A large fireplace sat in one wall, the fire crackling merrily. One of the walls seemed to be made of glass but all the curtains were drawn so I couldn't see outside.

Aiden walked over to a door in the corner by the glass wall and held it open for me. I stepped outside and turned to the left, then stopped dead in my tracks. In front of me was a huge balcony overlooking the amazing gardens and a lush, green forest. Off to the right, there was a lake, glittering in the moonlight.

"Beautiful, huh?" Aiden asked. 'Beautiful' was an understatement. It was stunning, awe-inspiring.

After a few minutes of silence, both of us just looking out at the view, Aiden said, "You must be pretty tired. I'll take you to your room." I nodded and we descended to the fourth floor again.

We walked down the hallway in silence until he stopped at a door and said, "This is your room. Mine's down that hall." He pointed down an adjacent hallway.

I opened the door and walked in. The room was beautiful. The walls were white with artistically painted lines in dark shades of blue and green. The thick carpet was dark royal blue, and the four-poster bed was the same as the walls, but the background was a light blue. In the corner was a large vanity with a huge mirror.

But what really caught my attention was the ceiling. It was charmed, just like the Great Hall at Hogwarts, to look just like the sky outside. Stars shone brightly against the velvety surroundings.

Aiden fidgeted from where he was leaning against the door. "I picked out all these stuff for your room, but if you don't like it, you can change it or choose a different room…"

"It's perfect." I turned and smiled at him. "This is absolutely perfect." I walked over and hugged him.

He beamed at me. "Well, the bathroom is through that door and your closet is over there," he gestured at two different doors. "That door over there leads to your private reading room. I heard you liked to read… that's why I chose this room. There are lots of books in there." He nodded at another door in the corner.

I made my way over to it and opened it. There was a small but cozy room with fluffy chairs scattered around and a small fire on one wall. All the other walls were covered with bookcases filled with books.

I looked at different titles until Aiden walked over to a bookcase in the corner and grabbed the edge. "I just wanted to show you this before you go to sleep," he told me. He pulled on the bookcase and it swung open, revealing a narrow staircase.

We made our way down the stairs until we came to another door. Aiden stepped aside and motioned for me to push it open. When I did, I saw the most spectacular room I had ever laid eyes on.

There was an enormous library with thousands of books. We were on the third floor and the ceiling was three stories above us with books filling it all the way up. The books covered every inch except for a few paintings here and there like the one we just emerged from.

"This is amazing!" I whispered.

Aiden laughed. "I thought you'd like it."

He eventually managed to drag me back to my room, where, after bidding Aiden goodnight and thanking him for the tour, I dropped onto my bed.

I just might get used to it here… I thought, just as I drifted off to sleep.

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