Chapter 11
You always feel things would be better in the morning. It's natural. If your heart has been broken, you just cry for a night, and wake up in the morning with a tear-stained pillow, but your heart is a little lighter. I thought we would feel better after a ruined Christmas, but another bombshell ruined this.
Most of my sleep was punctured by musing about what kind of mystery was at Hogwarts, and why my teenage daughter had to help, and why the teachers couldn't do it themselves. When my mind finally settled, and I drifted into sleep. It had been about a week after the letter, but it still stung. The fact our daughter wasn't with us in the most special time of the year.
When you think someone is gazing at you, it is a scary feeling. You feel insecure in your own body, and you just need to break out of their eerie stare. After a failed Christmas, David and I went to bed early, but in the early hours of Boxing Day morning, I had the feeling someone was watching us.
When I had enough of the feeling of fear, I panicked and turned the light on, to reveal our door ajar, and the oddest woman standing in the hallway. I shook David awake, "There is a woman in our hallway!" I hissed. He jumped up because of his natural protective instinct, and sprinted to the door, clutching an ornament he had obtained from his mother.
"You are breaking and entering, and we are going to call the police!" He said in his most regal voice, as we edged out of the door to face this woman.
She completely ignored this, "Hello Mr and Mrs Granger, my name is Professor McGonagall. I am the transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts!"
In shock, David dropped the ornament and it rolled towards the door. My mouth fell open, and my instant thoughts were panic. "What's wrong with Hermione?"
"Would you like to make yourselves more presentable? If we have your permission, we would like to take you to Hogwarts to visit Hermione?"
"What's wrong with her?" David demanded.
"You will see soon. She's fine, and it's nothing Madam Pomfrey hasn't solved a thousand times before!" Professor McGonagall said, as she swooped down the stairs. Breathless, we followed her, still curiously and worriedly asking questions.
"We have hooked up your fireplace with the Floo network just for tonight!" She gestured to our fireplace, which still looked the same as it did normally. With a faint hint at a smile, she continued "Not many Muggles have stepped inside Hogwarts, so you two are quite lucky!"
"How are we lucky, our daughter, there is something wrong with her?"
"Mr Granger, I guarantee she will be okay. Would you like to step into your fire place, please?"
"What?" I asked. That sentence seemed so odd, when we wanted to rush to see our daughter.
"Stand together, that's the ticket. Right, take some floo powder," She held out the pot in her hand, and David gingerly took some. "Now when I say so, can you please repeat 'Madam Pomfrey's office, Hogwarts School' not now, when I say so"
"What good will this do?"
"It will floo, or transport you, to Hogwarts School. There you can see your daughter. Now I will follow behind you, in case you get lost!"
"Lost?" I panicked. "How can we get lost? Can you just bring Hermione home?"
She ignored me, and she said "Right Mr Granger, now!"
David held onto my arm tightly, and he slowly dropped the powder, and repeated 'Madam Pomfrey's office, Hogwarts School' I could no longer see my living room. I could only see flashes of things, such bright colours that they made my eyes water. We were soon in an office, where a little grey-haired woman was sitting at her desk writing.
"Ah, hello there. I am Poppy Pomfrey, the matron at the school. I'll let Minerva do the explaining here. Here she is!" The woman exclaimed as Professor McGonagall climbed out of the fireplace.
"Good morning Poppy!" She remarked, as she pushed through the door. As we craned our necks to see through, we could tell we were in a hospital wing, with many beds. It was nearly empty apart from a small blonde boy, and a taller boy both lifeless in beds next to each other. I couldn't see my daughter at all, until Professor McGonagall stopped at the bed at the end. It didn't look like my daughter. It looked like an overgrown cat, with hair at every point of her skin, her normally pretty eyes were now yellow, and she had ears. This was Hermione.
"What's happened to you?" I shrieked, as I hugged her. She hugged me back gently.
"Potion gone wrong!" She whispered into my ear, and I hugged her again, tears falling down my cheeks.
"Yes we aren't quite sure what happened to her yet!" The matron remarked, watching us as David joined in the hug, also sobbing. "Rest assured, we think she will only be here for a few weeks!"
"She's not coming back!" David said fiercely.
"Before she went to this school, she would never have been changed into... a cat!" I agreed, "You can make her back into human, but then she is coming home!"
"No mum!" Hermione said quietly.
"What darling?" I spun around, not expecting her to talk back.
"I've got to stay here. It's too hard to explain, but I have too."
"But- you got turned into a cat?" David said bluntly.
"My own fault. Dad I can't leave now, Hogwarts is the best things that's ever happened to me!"
Despite our arguments, Hermione was sure she was staying there. We stayed there all Boxing Day, and only left, when Madam Pomfrey subtly said that Hermione might want some sleep. This time, we took the Hogwarts Express back, and our silence reverberated around the carriage. We were both playing the same memory in our head, our daughter, who mirrored a cat, curling up in her bed to sleep. This wouldn't have happened if she had enjoyed Christmas with us. Like a normal child.
I know there isn't any mention of her parents visiting in the book, but if your daughter had turned herself into a cat you would want to visit her wouldn't you?