Early August 1992:
Harry smiled as he watched Draco instructing Hermione on how to fly a broom. At school Hermione had been terrified, but her amongst family she was at ease. Harry couldn't believe it had been three weeks since everyone had moved in and five since he'd been attacked. This was by far the best times he could remember having in his life. It had taken a little time, around a week, for everyone to get settled in and have convincing back stories. The Malfoys simply didn't tell anyone that they moved since they'd already pulled Draco out of Hogwarts.
Hermione's story was equally as simple and her parents had already opened a small dental practice just inside town. Aunt Cissy and Aunt Heather had sat down and drawn up plans of how Aunt Heather wanted the building to look. The outside had been redone in brick and as you walked inside the walls were a merigold color with white daisy colored trimming. The floors were a dark cherry oak and the furniture was done in creams and beiges.
Granny's hadn't been that hard either since Rita Skeeter had written that it was rumored she would not come back. Dumbledore had been furious until Granny screamed that she couldn't teach the children in his year because they were alive and he wasn't. After that Dumbledore actually tried to convince her to go for counseling at St. Mungos because he said she harbored unwarranted resentment. The next day she had vanished and made it impossible for Dumbledore to trace her; in fact if he tried he would find that she was somewhere in Caithness, Scotland.
Uncle Sev had been the only one it proved hard to come up with a plausible reason to leave. Finally, after exploding in the Great Hall hadn't worked, he'd decided on another tactic. For the next three days, while Ministry officials were at the school ensuring it was safe and hiring new staff to replace not only Granny but also Quirrell, he'd went to the Great Hall drunk and slurring his words. The Ministry had forced Dumbledore to fire him after that since they'd already feared he was headed down a road of destruction. As soon as he'd been fired he'd left before Dumbledore could convince them otherwise. He'd taken a page out of Granny's book and made it where he was shown to be in Ireland. Likewise Uncle Luc, Aunt Cissy, and Draco showed up as being in France while the rest of the family, himself excluded of course, were the only ones to actually show up in America. Looking down at the photo album in his lap, it had been Magnolia's idea, he grinned at the pictures of the birthday party.
Since Hermione's birthday had been on September 19th (he'd scolded her for not telling him) and Draco's on June 5th, they adults and house elves had thrown a birthday for all of them. The cake had cats and dogs riding on brooms and playing Quidditch with an owl designed to look like Hedwig as the referee. Since it was still too dangerous to go out into the town the fifth floor had been transformed into a party room. Inside there were games like you would find at an American fair, a pool equipped with a wave setting to make surfing possible, and finally a small skating ring that was half concrete and half ice.
For Harry it had been the first birthday he had ever had and at first he had been a bit overwhelmed. The thing that had helped was that they were also celebrating Hermione and Draco's birthdays and so not all the focus was on him. Hermione had told him and Draco later that night when they were sitting on the roof star-gazing that it had been the first time she'd celebrated with friends. That had been the first time Harry realized Hermione had it harder than it seemed. At school she had often acted as if she was oblivious to what the others said about her, but he realized that those actions were the reasons that she had been sorted into Gryffindor. It took a lot of courage to wake up every day and know that she would face ridicule from almost her entire house. He was about to apologize for not noticing sooner what a git Ron was when Draco beat him. Draco apologized for the upteenth time for treating her like she was less and she had patted him on the back before winking and casting 'augmenti' in his face. That one spell had resulted in a water fight that lasted for almost three hours before they were called in to go to their 'houses' and open family presents.
