Muggle Matters

"Hermione, what's going on?" asked her father, as Hermione pulled away from her mother. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and Ron rubbed her back gently. She looked at both of her parents, not knowing how to approach this.

"I'll explain, I promise. But for now I think you need to eat something. Both of you look starved."

Ron helped her to her feet and her parents followed.

"Ron, Harry!" cried Hermione's mother. "Wonderful to see you again! My, have you two grown!"

"Nice to see you too, Mrs Granger," said Harry, holding out his hand. Ron nodded.

"Oh, please, call me Jillian," she said fondly as she shook both boys' hands. "And who is this young lady?"

Ginny smiled bashfully at Jillian Granger, "I'm Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister."

"Oh, of course! I thought you looked familiar! Doesn't she, Richard?"

Richard Granger, who was busy picking his glasses off the ground and rubbing them with the hem of his shirt merely replied, "Yes, dear."

Hermione lead her parents into the kitchen and they looked around with confused expressions. There were photographs of the two of them at places they had never seen in their life and there was not one photograph of Hermione. Mr Granger saw one ofhis business cards and picked it up.

"Wendell and Monica Wilkins... who are they?"

"They used to be you," said Hermione and she laughed when she saw her father's face. "Don't worry, dad, I'll explain everything once I've made you something to eat."

She set to work, preparing them a vegemite sandwich, as that was the only spread in the cupboard. The Grangers took one bite into it and spat it out immediately.

"Oh my, Hermione are you trying to poison us? What did you put on these sandwiches?"

"Vegemite! I've never had it in my life. Is it really that bad?"

Mr Granger nodded and asked her for a glass of water. Once her parents had recovered from the vegemite episode, Ron, Ginny and Harry all sat around the table, ready to help Hermione explain their circumstance to her parents.

"Okay, I suppose I should start at the beginning," said Hermione with a deep breath. "At the end of sixth year, Harry told us, Ron and I, that he was going to search for Voldemort's Horcruxes. These are parts of Voldemort's soul that are hidden inside objects. With these, he couldn't die, unless his Horcruxes were destroyed first. So Ron and I agreed to go with him. We started our search. They were after us. And for your own safety...I wiped your memories."

Mr and Mrs Granger looked at each other in shock. "You wiped our memories?"

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "I made you believe that you were Wendell and Monica Wilkins and that your dream was to move to Australia."

Mrs Granger's eyes widened. "Australia? Oh my goodness, we are in Australia aren't we, dear?"

"Melbourne, to be exact."

"How on earth did you find us?" asked Mr Granger in astonishment.

"I'll get to that later. Harry, would you mind explaining the rest?"

Harry nodded and continued the story. "So, we started our search. It was impossible at first, as we had no idea where to look. But eventually, we destroyed them all and then I defeated Voldemort. Since then, we've been staying at the Burrow with the Weasleys, until Hermione asked us if we would help her find you guys. So, here we are."

Mrs Granger's brown eyes, so like Hermione's were swimming with tears. She leant forward and pulled all four of them into her arms.

"Mum, what's wrong?" asked Hermione.

Mrs Granger stroked her cheek gently. "I'm just so proud of you. Of all of you! You are all so brave! And then agreeing to help Hermione... she really is lucky to have friends like you!"

"Of course we would help her!" said Ron, beaming at Hermione. "We wouldn't have survived without her!" He squeezed her hand under the table, causing Hermione to flush furiously.

"So now what?" asked Mr Granger.

"Come back to England, of course!" cried Hermione excitedly. Her parents exchanged pointed looks and shook their heads.

"Hermione, remember, we are Muggles, so it isn't as easy for us to just pack up and leave. We need to plan, we have to have enough money to buy plane tickets and then we have to find somewhere to stay. It's not that simple, dear."

Hermione was crestfallen. "So, you're not coming back?"

Mrs Granger wiped the tears that were falling down Hermione's face with her thumb. "Don't worry, honey, we will come back. It's not forever. We just have to plan it out. Anyway, you're going back to Hogwarts aren't you?"

'Yes, how did you know?" asked Hermione, surprised.

'Come on, Hermione. You're my daughter. I know you back to front. If there was any chance to go back and finish your studies you would take it. It's just who you are."

Hermione nodded. After all the commotion here in Australia, she had almost forgotten that she was going back to Hogwarts in less than a month. It was incredible really.

"Well, maybe we'll be back by the Christmas holidays," said Mr Granger.

Hermione smiled at her parents. It was good to have them back to normal. Just being with them made her feel like her life was complete again. She wanted to tell them about Ron, but she didn't think it was the best time too. Besides, by the way they kept looking at him, she thought they knew anyway. He was always caught staring at her. In a way that showed just how much he cared about her. His hand had moved from her hand to rest on her thigh. It gave her goose bumps for him to be so close to her.

The sky had turned a dark grey and the wind had picked up even more. Mr and Mrs Granger offered for Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione to stay for the night. There were two spare rooms, one with a double bed, one with a single. Ron told Ginny and Hermione to share the double and that he would sleep on the couch while Harry slept in the single bed. It wasn't until Hermione's head sank into the pillow that she realised how tired she was. Ginny stirred slightly beside her. Closing her eyes, Hermione couldn't help but smile. Hopefully, that would be the end of the drama.