Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this fanfiction. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, who thankfully allows others to play in her universe.
Chapter 9 Aunt Hermione's Story
The next morning Roxanne choose a plain white cast, after she saw how bright the color options were. Dr. Taik unwrapped her arm and then put on a soft wrap. He was very careful not to move her arm so it didn't hurt. Then he started wrapping her arm with white gauze. "The cast is going to get a bit warm as it hardens. You'll need to watch for swelling at first. If it does swell hold your arm over your head. And the cast shouldn't get wet so cover it in plastic before bathing." As he talked Roxanne started to feel the warmth where he had already wrapped. It continued to get warmer until it was almost uncomfortably so. "There, all done. Give it another 10 minutes or so to harden and you can get out of here."
15 minutes later a nurse checked and said she was good to go. Roxanne lightly ran her finger along her cast then tapped it with her nail. If she didn't know better she would have thought it had always been this hard. She wondered how it worked.
"Uncle Ron is going to give us a ride to the Burrow," Mum said as they exited the hospital.
"The Burrow? Why not home?"
"Grandmum Weasley won't believe you're okay until she sees it with her own eyes," Dad said.
Roxanne looked down at her cast and made a face. "Will everyone be there?"
Mum smiled, "All the aunts and uncles I'm afraid, but most of the cousins are at school."
Roxanne let out the breath she had been holding.
"I'm sure Harry could pull some strings and arrange for them to come too," Dad offered.
"No, that's okay," Roxanne said.
"George, don't tease her, she's hurt. Look here comes Ron."
xxx
At the Burrow, all her relatives had a thousand questions for her.
"Does it hurt?"
"Not anymore."
"What's on your arm?"
"A cast."
"Did you really fall off a horse?"
"Actually I was thrown."
Rose learned from her Mum that it was traditional for Muggles to get their friends and families to sign their casts. So everyone wanted to and Roxanne had to hold out her arm for each of her relatives. Rose and Albus told everyone to only put their first names. "This way it will look like friends and family have signed," Rose confided.
"And Lily is going to add a few more names." Albus said as Lily approached with her color changing marker and an air of importance.
"First name Emily." Lily tilted her head to the side. "Emily has blond curls and her favorite color is pink. She lives near your house and you used to play every day, until you went to Fieldspark." As Lily chattered about Emily she had written in bubbly pink letters 'Emily'. "Next name is Vicky, she's a tomboy and hangs out with you and Fred. She's really good at catching frogs." This name she had written in cramped green letters. "Next is Pat.''
"There's a Patricia in my class." Roxanne said quickly, she didn't like the idea of seeing that name on her arm every day.
"Skip that one," Albus told his sister.
Lily pouted and then looked at the list. "Annamarie is next, she's really nice and she has a little sister my age and they have a puppy." Roxanne wondered how many of these names were real and how many made up. Lily had a different story for each name. Some seemed made up like the Princess Evangeline. While others like Amber sounded like Lily had known them for years. "There, what do you think?" Lily asked, after the last name had been added.
"It's wonderful Lily, thank you." Roxanne said. She liked the idea of tricking the school into thinking she had lots of friends.
Lily capped her marker, curtsied, and then skipped off, singing a silly song about a lonely dragon.
Roxanne looked at Rose and Albus about to thank them as well when Rose spoke. "Now you look popular, that should make school a little better."
Roxanne sighed, "It won't help me in class."
"Have you been using the encyclopedia?" Albus asked.
"Yes, but there's so much I don't know."
"I wonder if this is how Muggle Born's feel?" Rose said, looking thoughtful, "Maybe that's why Mum memorized all her textbooks."
"How's Aunt Hermione coming with the squib school?"
Albus and Rose glanced at each other and shrugged, "Mum's been very busy with SPEW and her Werewolf Welfare work."
"And since my Mum has been working, Lily and I have been staying at Rose's." Albus added, nodding way too many times.
"Now tell me what you aren't telling me," Roxanne said, with as much authority as she could.
"Well, she's asked around but hasn't been able to find any support," Rose said.
"Even the squibs she's talked to think it's best for squibs to go to Muggle schools," Albus said.
"They're wrong, it's not better, it's horrible. Everyone thinks I'm stupid for not knowing things Muggle babies know and I can't even tell them why." As she had been talking she hadn't noticed her voice rising and it had attracted the notice of one of the grownups.
"Roxanne is that true?"
Roxanne spun around, took one look at the hurt look on her Granddad Weasley's face, and burst into tears. Granddad Weasley had been so excited she was going to Muggle school and now she had disappointed him.
"Come on," he said, gesturing for her to follow him.
Roxanne kept her head down and hoped no one would notice she was crying.
xxx
"Hermione, tell Roxanne about your first month at Hogwarts," Granddad Weasley ordered. Completely interrupting Hermione and Ron.
Ron's ears went red, "She doesn't like to think of that time."
Granddad Weasley crossed his arms, "Roxanne needs to hear this story."
Ron opened his mouth, most likely to argue, but Hermione laid a hand on his arm, she had noticed Roxanne's tears. "It's okay Ron, he's right. I should have thought of it."
"We want to hear too," Rose said. Albus nodded next to her.
Aunt Hermione looked taken aback. "It won't be like that for you.''
"Now Hermione, everyone feels like they're on the outside looking in at some point in their lives." Granddad Weasley said.
Out of the corner of her eye Roxanne saw movement. Rose and Albus were nodding. When had they ever felt like that? Albus was the son of the great Harry Potter people loved him on principle. And Rose was so confident and sure of herself.
"That's how I felt 7th year when I left…" Uncle Ron said trailing off when Roxanne looked at him.
"Left what Dad?" Rose asked.
Uncle Ron's ears turned red. "I think you should tell them about your first month at school," Uncle Ron said loudly. Avoiding his daughter's eyes.
Aunt Hermione shook her head smiling and rolling her eyes. "All right, muffliarto," Aunt Hermione waived her wand as she said the last word.
Roxanne hadn't seen her draw her wand and she felt a tightness in her chest. She would never be able to do even the simplest spell.
"Now we won't be disturbed," Aunt Hermione said pocketing her wand. "When I first got my letter I was so excited, I had always believed magic was real. My so-called-Muggle-friends said it was babyish to believe in magic and they teased me about it."
Roxanne nodded this sounded like a few of the Muggles she knew.
"I thought everyone would be like me at magic school and I'd have lots of friends." Hermione went on, "I was so excited I memorized all my textbooks."
Uncle Ron made a strange noise that if you weren't paying attention might have sounded like a cough.
"And a few other books," Aunt Hermione said smiling at him.
Roxanne fidgeted, so far nothing Aunt Hermione had said would help. She couldn't have memorized her schoolbooks.
"When I got on the train I was quick to show others how much I knew. Thinking it would be the best way to find friends with common interests. But the girls all seem to have friends to giggle with about me behind my back. Then I met Neville he listened to everything I said while I tried to help him find his toad."
"Then you met Dad and Uncle Harry," Rose interrupted smiling, "and you told Dad off for not knowing a proper spell." Rose's eyes gleamed with wicked glee.
"Let's just say it started us off on the wrong foot," Aunt Hermione said.
"Is that why you weren't friends at first?" Albus asked.
Uncle Ron's ears turned red, "we were eleven."
Rose crossed her arms, "Roxanne's eleven and Albus and I are ten, we know better."
"I hope you do," Aunt Hermione said, "but until you experience it for yourself and see how you act don't judge."
Roxanne recalled the look on Mandy's face when Scarlet and her friends had mocked her. Roxanne hadn't joined in, but she hadn't tried to stop it either.
"Neville came to me for help after that as did a few of my other classmates but no one was really friendly. I tried to distract myself by focusing on school, that made it worse. No one likes a know it all. People took to mocking me, kids I had never done anything to except help them with their homework."
Roxanne swallowed a lump in her throat, she knew all too well how Aunt Hermione must of felt. Except for the homework part, she was the worst students in the school except for maybe Sevastian.
"I tried to pretend like I didn't care what they said," Aunt Hermione continued. "Neville told me years later that he thought I didn't want any friends and that's why I acted like I didn't care. Then on Halloween I had a particularly bad day, and found I couldn't pretend anymore." She said this carefully as if she was putting a particular angle on it. "I locked myself in the girl's bathroom and cried. I skipped class and I didn't try to be quiet, I wanted everyone to know how miserable I was. A couple of girls came to check on me, but none of them stayed long. And then everything got quiet. That was when I realized unless I changed I would be just as lonely in the Wizard World as I was in the Muggle one. I didn't have long to dwell on this as two boys had locked a troll in the bathroom with me."
"We didn't know you were in there," Uncle Ron interrupted.
"I know, as soon as I screamed they were there trying to save me. And it was Ron who knocked it out with its own club." Aunt Hermione said smiling at her husband.
"That's not the best part of the story," Uncle Ron said modestly. "Hermione got Harry me out of trouble by lying to Professor McGonagall."
"Well before the troll, I had decided I should relax a little about the rules so I could make friends. It seemed like a good time to start. After that we were friends."
Roxanne thought this over, "there aren't any trolls at Fieldspark."
"It doesn't have to be a troll just something big," Rose said.
"Like what?" Roxanne asked desperately.
"I don't know, what's scary in the Muggle World?" Rose asked.
"You're missing the point," Aunt Hermione said hurriedly.
Roxanne looked at her hopefully.
"We became friends not just because of the troll but also because I took the blame."
Roxanne shoulders fell, she couldn't see Sevastian suddenly wanting to be her friend just to serve one less detention. Clearly Muggle kids were different.
