Chapter 14 - Settling In
July 4th, 1992
Location: Granger's House - Heathgate, Hampstead
It doesn't take them long to arrive at Hermione's place, apparently she lives only thirty minutes away from Leaky Cauldron, and the first look Meissa gets of Hermione's house is…
Meissa tilts her head back as she takes in the sight of the three storied restored Victorian house. There's a lot of white trimming against the dark red coloring. There's plenty of windows - so many windows, where's the concept of privacy? A porch stretches around from the front and disappears around the corners, most likely continuing to the back of the house. She eyes the roof where she can see at least two small turrets - it's nothing like Hogwarts' - and several balconies for the rooms on the second floor. She can only imagine that the third floor must be strictly an attic or converted into something because it seems like there is one large bay window.
It's a truly impressive house that reminds her strongly of Nigri Sanctuarium.
"This is a house with quite the history," Daphne remarks, nodding in approval.
"Thank you," Hermione says before she realizes that there aren't any bags for either girls. "Uh, did you bring any changes of clothes?"
"Yes," they chime at the same time. Meissa produces two bags that fits in her palm easily while Daphne reveals to be carrying a shrunken trunk - the raven haired girl has no doubt that it's enchanted to be bottomless.
"And how do you plan on unshrinking it?" Hermione asks, crossing her arms.
"Magic," Meissa grins cheekily as Henry walks around the trio, shaking his head at their antics.
"In case you've forgotten," Hermione's voice begins to adopt a tone Meissa hasn't heard since the beginning of their first year. "We're not allowed to use magic outside of school."
Daphne arched an eyebrow at the other girl while Meissa ushers the pair up the stairs after Henry. The Slytherin brunette deciding that it'd be better off to have this conversation in the relative privacy of Hermione's house.
"Meissa, enough," Hermione shrugs off the other girl's hands once they're pass the front entrance.
Meissa waves off the dismissal, preoccupied in studying the foyer. It's a rather simple, the walls painted a shade of beige with the trimmings done in a dark treated unpainted wood. A simple patterned rug covers the hard wood floor that compliments the paint on the walls. She can see stairs leading to the next floor to her left, an open space to her right - it looks like a living room. Judging from the table and chairs at the end of the hall she imagines that to be the dining room.
"You have a beautiful home," Meissa finally compliments.
"Thank you," Jane hangs up her coat, taking the others' coats to do the same. "It's been in my family for generations."
Daphne taps Meissa's shoulder, a serious expression marring her face. The taller girl looks at Daphne and subtly shakes her head, already knowing what the blonde is trying to clue her in. She had felt it the second they've set foot on the property.
"Mom, can I show them to their rooms?"
"Of course."
Hermione gestures for them to follow her, leading them up to the second floor and pauses as she looks up another flight of stairs. "My parents' room is there," she points to a closed door in front of them. She walks away from the stairs and opens the next door. "This is my room," she says, moving aside so they could look.
The ceiling has been painted black with stars painted in imitation of the constellations. The walls were hard to see beyond the photos of Hermione, Henry, and Jane. But the majority of the room were occupied by bookshelves burdened with books both big and small. Against one wall, at the far end of the room, seems to be a bed. Except it's nothing like the ones she has seen before. For one, it seems to be raised high off the floor with a small ladder connecting the bed to the floor. In the gap between the bed and the floor is a desk and a chair.
"Wow, Hermione, you have your own personal library started," Meissa teases with a smirk.
"Don't you start!"
Daphne giggles as Hermione points a finger at Meissa with a scowl on her face. The raven haired girl leans back from the finger, the smirk still persistent.
"You're enjoying this too much," Hermione mock glares at the blonde, getting a cheeky grin from the others.
"If it makes you feel any better," Meissa starts in a lazy drawl, "you'll have a chance to tease me when we visit the Sanctuarium."
Hermione barely looks mollified by this and simply decides to usher the girls out of her room. "Do you want to share a room or have a separate room?" she asks, showing them where the bathroom is before pausing in front of the two remaining doors on the second floor.
The girls exchange looks with each other, talking without really having to say anything. "We can share," Meissa answers.
Hermione nods and opens the door at the far end of the house - it's the furthest from the staircase and from her parents and herself. It was the sort of privacy she imagines Meissa would desire the most out of the three of them. She doesn't question the decision for them to share a room - she imagines that it's borne from the familiarity of sharing a dorm room.
The room within is rather simple in its' decorations - often serving as a guest room for any of her visiting relatives. There's a dresser tucked away into the corner of the room with one wall of the room set up with two bookshelves and a desk.
"Where's the bed?" Daphne asks, looking around as Meissa continues looking around. There's a set of doors that - from what she can see - leads out to the balcony and several large artworks. The lack of bed is one of the things she noted but had assumed there was a reason for it.
"Right here," Hermione walks to the desk the girls had noticed and, with a tug of the handles, pulls down a bed.
"Ingenious," Daphne remarks as Hermione completely lowers the bed for them.
The mattress is still stripped bare from the last visit from her relatives so she leaves the room, allowing the two Slytherins to get situated as she went looking for the appropriate sheets.
"There's so much we don't know," Daphne remarks lightly, placing her shrunken trunk in an out of the way spot in the room and, with a tap of her wand, restored it to its' original size.
"Mhm," Meissa agrees as she sets her bag on the floor, returning them to their proper sizes. "Either way, one thing to keep in mind is to keep magic to a minimum."
"You don't honestly think that the Ministry will know we're using magic."
"We are in the non-magical community - they'll just blame Hermione if they detect any." She doubts this as she says it - she had filed a document with the Ministry, alerting them to the fact she was going to be in the non-magical word for the unforeseeable time and to ignore any uses of magic as a result. There's a benefit of her being acknowledged now and it's something she has every intention of utilizing to its' fullest.
"This is true. Also, magic doesn't mix well with their technology, correct?"
"That is the general knowledge yes."
Daphne eyes her best friend as a knock sounds on the door. "Why do I get the feeling you intend to experiment?"
Meissa heads to the door to let in Hermione. "I don't know where you got such a thought," she retorts, stepping aside for the other girl.
"What did I miss?" Hermione asks, giving Meissa a suspicious look.
"I think Meissa intends to experiment."
"I never said anything of the like," the girl in question huffs, rolling her eyes at the other two.
"You were thinking it," Daphne retorts.
"What, exactly, are you talking about?"
"Daphne thinks I want to mix magic and technology."
Hermione frowns at this. "I know that, for Hogwarts, the centuries of magic has made it difficult to bring it up to date."
"That's the known theory," Meissa remarks before she gets two simultaneous looks. "I don't intend to do experiments!" she defends. She has no intention to do anything of the like until she has a better understanding of technology.
Not that she'd admit that to Hermione or Daphne.
"In any case," Daphne decides to take it easy on the raven haired girl and change the topic for the time being, "we were discussing about using magic here."
"More like, we agreed we shouldn't."
Hermione shake her head as she hands one end of fitted sheet to Meissa and tugs her end over her side of the mattress. Taking her cue from the Gryffindor girl, Meissa does the same thing.
"I suppose I should say thank you," Hermione remarks drily.
"You've been spending too much time with Meissa," Daphne notes before she starts to unpack her clothes from her trunk.
"Maybe she's been spending too much time with me."
The Slytherins exchange looks before they started laughing, prompting Hermione to glare and throw the pillows she brought at them. Meissa catches the pillow with a laugh, slightly surprised before she retaliates with a fierce war cry.
Downstairs Jane looks up from her cooking as the shouts and laughter echoes through the old house. "My," Henry drawls as he enters the kitchen, shutting the medical book he was studying, "it's been quite some time since I've heard such laughter."
"Longer still since Hermione has brought over friends."
"Oi!" they heard from upstairs before there's a heavy thud.
"Do you want to check on the girls?" Jane suggests to her husband, turning back to the simple meal she had planned.
Henry leaves the room without replying, heading up the stairs to the peals of laughter before he hears his daughter's stern voice lecturing. He follows her voice to the room in the far corner of the house.
"Honestly Meissa!" he hears Hermione scolds before there's another round of laughter, interrupting his daughter. Amused as well as curious he knocks on the partially open door.
"It's open!"
He gently pushes the door open and takes a second to study the scene.
Pillows and blankets cover the hardwood floor. The raven haired girl - Meissa, if he remembers right - is kneeling on the wall bed, a triumph grin on her face as she clutches a pillow in her hands. On the floor, sprawled on her back, was his daughter and she looks rather put out - he imagines she may have been the source of the thump he heard earlier. In the corner of the room was the blonde, slightly disheveled but not nearly as bad as the other two, and she clutches a pillow to her chest as she eyes the other occupants in the room.
"I come bearing news," he announces with a grin on his face, "to the victor, goes the spoils of chocolate cake."
"What!" Hermione cries while Meissa cheers and, with a bounce, got to her feet. He realizes then that Meissa's hair - previously bound in a braid - fell around her shoulders in a rather uncontrolled mess. It reminds him a great deal of Hermione's defiant hair.
"I told you that Slytherins are the best," Meissa teases, helping the brunette to her feet.
"And when did you say this?"
"I've always said it!"
"It's implied," Daphne injects with a sly smirk.
Shaking his head in amusement he leaves the girls to their 'debate', "Supper will be ready in twenty minutes. Wash up before you head down."
"Okay dad!"