Updated 5/28/2008 - fixed room dimensions. Cookies to rotsapv!
Updated 5/21/2008 - fixed reference error September to October
A/N: Today Hermione, tomorrow Neville, then back to Harry. These two chapters are because I wanted to explore the two friends and their lives. There is no chapter on Lavender, however. I didn't spend as much time thinking about her and she continues to be an adjunct. More about Pansy is in Neville's chapter.
Chapter 25 – Hermione's Summer
--June 21--
Hermione glared at the man sitting across from her calmly sipping his tea. He smiled and she scowled back at him. She transferred her scowl to the open box in front of her. This was…something.
Oh, the contents of the box were easily identifiable. There was a torc sitting there on its blue velvet padding. It was a nice golden torc with engravings of squirrels along it. And the squirrels on the torc just happened to suspiciously have the same markings as her own squirrel form.
Her emotions, however, were not so easily identifiable. She'd been surprised, then frightened, then angry, then dumbfounded and all those emotions now blended and swirled with the healthy amount of suspicion she'd approached this meeting with in the first place. Now, as she continued to stare at the centuries old torc (she'd checked the date with a spell), she wasn't sure what she felt.
She'd never told anyone about her animagus form. No one. Not even Harry.
She'd been fascinated by the concept of being an animagus from her very first exposure to magic in the form of an extremely convincing display by a visiting Professor McGonagall when the professor had come to explain about Hogwarts. A book about how to become an animagus had been one of her first non-schoolbook purchases at Flourish and Blotts. She'd been studying to become an animagus since before she'd even seen the Hogwarts Express. As she couldn't practice wand magic during the summers she had turned to studying non-wand magic, like runes and arithmancy and potions. And becoming an animagus.
She'd actually been a full-fledged animagus since just before she'd started her fourth year. Three years of concerted study had given her success on August 27, 1994. She'd been ecstatic and had pranced about in the trees in her backyard for nearly four hours. The next day she had snagged her mother's tripod and camera, the one with the timer, and had very meticulously set up everything just right so she could take an entire roll of film worth of pictures of her form. She still had all twenty-seven of those pictures in a small album in her room.
And this 600-year-old torc looked as if she had been the model.
It was…creepy.
It was also very convincing.
Her squirrel form was, after all, the only reason she had even agreed to this meeting. The prophecy Harry relayed had mentioned a squirrel. The Unspeakables had several reasons why they thought she was their squirrel. She was a squirrel. She hated divination, but it was a bit hard to argue with so many coincidences all gathered together.
"We can teach you how to be an animagus," Rookwood said mildly. "It takes several years of training and practice but I'm sure you won't have any problems."
Hermione looked up from the torc and raised an eyebrow at the man.
"It's an immense advantage if you find yourself in a tight spot," Rookwood said.
"I don't need help," Hermione said blandly.
"I'm sure you could accomplish the transformation on your own," Rookwood agreed. "However, it's much easier if you have a tutor."
"I'm sure," Hermione said with a smirk. "But I don't need help. I've been an animagus almost three years now." She smirked wider when the man choked on his tea.
"I see," Rookwood said after he'd recovered and cleaned himself up. "You did that on purpose."
"No, actually, but it was certainly satisfying," Hermione said, still smirking.
Rookwood chuckled. "I suppose it was, at that. So, you're already a squirrel?"
"Yes."
"Grey?"
"Yes."
"Marked like that," Rookwood gestured towards the torc.
"Yes," Hermione said then added pointedly, "I'm sure you didn't expect any different."
"No, I didn't," Rookwood admitted. "But I just wanted to be sure. So, will you come?"
Hermione turned her attention back to the torc. She picked it up and examined it more closely. It felt right in her hands. "Your future will require a leap of faith," she murmured.
"Pardon?" Rookwood said.
"Something Trelawney said to me just before I left Hogwarts yesterday," Hermione said. "I thought she was just being batty, but now I wonder."
"She's batty," Rookwood said with a chuckle. "Never wonder about that. It doesn't mean she's not a true seer, however."
"So, I put this on and, just like magic, I'll suddenly become a calmer person," Hermione said. "My drive to learn everything will wane."
"No," Rookwood denied with a shake of his head. "Your desire to learn everything will be tempered. Right now, you're desperate. Your thoughts are always overshadowed by the feeling that you have to learn as much as you can right now, that there isn't enough time to learn everything you need to. Correct?"
Hermione nodded but kept her eyes on the torc. "Yes. Nobody really understands how I feel. They think I'm just obsessive."
"You are obsessive," Rookwood said. "Just as every Unspeakable before you and every Unspeakable after you. Nobody but us can ever truly understand the absolute desperation that we feel to learn everything. Putting on that torc will curb the obsession. You'll be able to enjoy other activities without feeling guilty about not learning a new fact every minute. But your drive to learn won't disappear. It's just that that nebulous thing that you've always been striving for will now be fulfilled."
"And I'll be your leader," Hermione said.
"Yes," Rookwood agreed. "You'll be our new leader."
"Just like that?" Hermione asked doubtfully.
"Yes," Rookwood said. "Just like that."
"Because the Gods have willed it," Hermione said in disbelief.
"Just so," Rookwood said calmly. "You won't be the first leader to not like the idea of divine intervention. The Gods must not mind, though, or they wouldn't have picked you."
"Lovely," Hermione said sourly.
"Will you join us?" Rookwood asked quietly.
Hermione looked up once again. "Tell me about these secrets."
Rookwood nodded. "Just days before Voldemort's fall the Unspeakables finally discovered how to modify the fidelius spell. The old version was one secret, one secret keeper. If a second secret was desired, a second secret keeper needed to be found. But we changed it, exponentiated it. Now, with one secret keeper there is still only one secret, but two keepers can hold four secrets, three keepers can hold nine secrets, four keepers can hold sixteen secrets…"
"And one hundred keepers can hold ten thousand secrets," Hermione finished softly in understanding.
"Yes."
"The Squirrel who shall reveal ten thousand secrets…" Hermione repeated. "To the King. To Harry's seventh son."
"So we believe," Rookwood said in agreement.
"And how many secrets do you hold right now?" Hermione asked. "Ninety-nine squared?"
"No, not yet," Rookwood admitted with a grimace. "We're working on it but it takes about a day to set up all the runic anchors around an area and cast the spell. There are only so many days in a year and we've only had this new spell for not quite sixteen years. Right now we hold 3,382 secrets."
"That's a long way to go and not much time left to get everything hidden before Voldemort starts rampaging," Hermione said grimly.
"I know," Rookwood said. "But we have limited man-power. The new fidelius takes ten times more preparation than the old one and it takes twenty people all day to set up and hide one secret. Even if all of us were free to set up the secrets, that's still only five a day."
"Another three or four years," Hermione said after a moment's mental calculation.
"Yes. At the least. There are only thirty of us working on this now, though. We're doing our best but we still have duties within the Ministry and…"
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"Why…what?" Rookwood asked in confusion.
"Why do you still have duties within the Ministry?" Hermione clarified.
"We still have to maintain our cover," Rookwood answered. "We can't all just disappear."
"Why not?" Hermione asked. "Why can't you stage a very unfortunate accident while working with experimental charms and kill off a score of you or more?"
Rookwood was silent a moment. "I suppose that's possible," he admitted eventually. "We've been quitting, retiring, and killing ourselves fairly steadily, though, so as not to raise suspicions. I'm not sure how the Ministry would react if we had a mass death like that."
Hermione hummed a non-committal sound. "Are you my second in command?"
"Yes," Rookwood said. "You will join us?"
Hermione nodded once, slowly. "Yes. I will join you." She closed her eyes and raised the torc to her neck. She hesitated just a moment then remembered Trelawney's words and set the torc in place.
Magic swirled and swirled.
--June 30--
Unspeakables Decimated!
A horrible accident in the experimental charms section of the Department of Mysteries resulted in a fiery explosion that killed nearly half the Unspeakables yesterday. Inside information reveals that work was being done on a new shield that was hoped to protect against the killing curse but the shield backfired…
"You know, decimated actually means to reduce by ten percent," Hermione said absently. "Decimated, as in decimal."
"The Prophet is hardly known for their vocabulary," Irma Pince said with a sniff.
Hermione looked up from her reading and smiled at the approaching woman in amusement. "No, I suppose not."
"Are you done with that horrid paper yet?" Irma asked with a grimace of distaste.
"I only just started!" Hermione protested.
"Right. Are you done?" Irma repeated.
Hermione rolled her eyes but tossed the paper aside. "Yes. I'm done. What do you need?"
"You have a letter," Irma said, holding out a light green envelope. "It's from your friend inviting you to his grandfather's estate for the last two weeks in August."
"You're reading my mail?" Hermione asked in surprise.
Irma merely raised an eyebrow.
Hermione scowled as she remembered the several seers she had on staff. "Right. Never mind."
"You should go," Irma continued. "He's going to be very upset and will need a logical mind to sort him out."
"Why?" Hermione asked quickly in concern. "What's going to happen to him?"
"He's just going to realize that he sabotaged his courtships way back in October," Irma said with a shrug. "It's going to upset him and you'll need to set him straight."
Hermione blinked in surprise. "What did he do?"
"Unknown," Irma answered.
"Do you know who his mate will be?" Hermione asked curiously.
"A Veela or half-Veela," Irma said. "The imagery is always a hawk."
Hermione sighed and accepted the envelope. "All right. Thank you."
Irma Pince took a seat and watched as her new leader opened her letter and read through it with small smile. Irma had been the one to identify Hermione Granger as the new leader of the Unspeakables. She'd nearly cried in joy and relief the first time she had seen the unmistakable bushy hair and buckteeth on the eager little Gryffindor. They'd been without a leader nearly five years by then…
"Are you all right with me being your leader?" Hermione asked suddenly.
Irma frowned. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Lots of reasons," Hermione said matter-of-factly. "My age. My blood status. My gender. My complete and utter lack of experience in a leadership capacity. The fact that you've been in authority over me for the past six years."
"All of those things are immaterial," Irma said firmly. "You were chosen, therefore you are an appropriate choice."
Hermione groaned slightly and rubbed her temples at the circular logic. "I didn't know you were religious."
Irma fought a smile. She'd long known the young woman was going to have problems accepting the more divine aspects of the Unspeakables. "Have faith."
"My leaps of faith are all used up this month," Hermione said sardonically.
Irma did smile this time. "Augustus told us what Trelawney said to you. Are you sure it was a singular leap of faith she was referencing?"
Hermione scowled. "Who knows? I hate divination."
"You'll get used to it," Irma reassured her leader. "Shall we continue with history lessons about our lovely organization? Or would you like to summon another Unspeakable for a meet-and-greet?"
Hermione winced at the wording. The squirrel torc she wore connected magically to each of the torcs worn by the ninety-nine Unspeakables that reported to her. Her torc was the master and as such allowed her many liberties. One of those liberties was the ability to summon one or more of her people to her side. It rather strongly reminded her of Voldemort's Dark Mark. At least the summons never caused pain, just a varying sense of urgency.
"Actually, I had some questions about the fidelius you've set up around Hogwarts," Hermione said. "If you just happen to know of a passage that goes from inside a secret to outside a secret, can you still get into the secret if you don't know where the secret is but do know where the passage is?"
Hermione saw the wild-eyed look that came over her head of recruitment and sighed. "Right. Let me tell you about a couple of secret passages into Hogsmeade…"
--July 9--
"Augustus! You can't just hide Buckingham Palace!" Hermione cried in exasperation.
"It shouldn't be left to Voldemort!" Augustus argued back fervently. "Once it becomes obvious that he can attack muggles with impunity, Voldemort will start targeting muggle landmarks in an attempt to demoralize the population and get them to leave the Isles of their own accord. What bigger blow than destroying the monarchy? It may be mostly be for show, but it means a lot to the muggles."
Hermione groaned. "Fine. Fine. Hide the Palace."
Rookwood grinned. "Thank you," he said and gathered his papers to leave.
"Not this year, though, Augustus. Do you hear me?" Hermione called to the retreating man.
Augustus didn't make any indication that he'd heard his leader.
"Do you hear me, Augustus! Not this year! It's too early! Augustus! You activate that fidelius without my consent and I'll have your balls! Augustus! Augustus!"
"Blasted man!" Hermione groused and a slapped a hand down flat onto the table in frustration. She diligently ignored the giggles coming from her left. Instead, she glared at her head of agriculture.
"I've acquired a herd of ostriches," Jacob Silverman said with a perfectly straight face.
Hermione stared at the man dumbfounded.
"Their meat is better for you than beef and they don't require as much land to raise," Jacob continued.
Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There were some definite perquisites to being the head of the Unspeakables, but today she rather felt she was earning every one of them.
--July 17--
"The Minister wants us to replace all those we lost in the explosion," Margaret, the Ministry liaison, said with a sigh. "This is why we didn't do this before. Now we'll have to recall all our other operatives. Those who aren't supposedly dead, anyway."
Hermione looked around the table at her dozen department heads and saw frustration, anger, and disappointment. Nobody looked happy. She snorted in annoyance. Honestly. She leaned forward in her seat as everyone turned to look at her. She stared them all down until even Rookwood started fidgeting.
"For shame," Hermione said as she glared at each of her people. "Do none of you see the advantages here?"
"I thought the whole point of killing off so many…" Petrus started angrily but fell silent under the icy glare of his leader. "No, miss, I'm afraid I'm missing the advantages," he said respectfully.
Hermione swept her gaze across the others. "Anyone?" Various negative responses were her answer. "Think outside the box," she said as a hint then let out an exasperated snort at all the blank faces she received.
"That phrase means, basically, to think creatively," Hermione elaborated. "To step out of the rut of ingrained thinking patterns."
Still no one had any response.
"Let me ask you a question," Hermione said with a shake of her head. "We're supposed to hire thirty new people. So…why don't we?"
"But we already have all hundred of us," Margaret said in confusion.
Hermione shook her head again and reiterated, "We're supposed to hire thirty new people. So…why don't we?"
There were several more moments of silence then Jacob asked, "What would we have them do?"
"Whatever the Ministry asked them to," Hermione said flatly but with a nod of approval to Jacob, who seemed to be the only one picking up the possibilities. "Just because their job title would be Unspeakable doesn't mean that they would be a true Unspeakable."
"Decoys," Augustus said, also now understanding his leader's thoughts.
"Not just decoys, but, yes, that would be one of their functions," Hermione said. "We hire them, we maybe even ask for more money to train them, we assign them to all the Ministry duties. All we need to do is provide the new employees with a reasonable framework for their new and mysterious job and an apparent hierarchy. Other than that, we don't worry about them."
"We could actually hire worthwhile people and have an excellent fake department," Irma said enthusiastically. Having figured out the ruse being proposed, she embraced the idea wholeheartedly.
"You have suggestions?" Hermione asked in interest.
"Yes," Irma said with a grin. "I can think of a dozen or more people just off the top of my head in many different fields. I could find people for potions, fighting, research, investigation, administration, anything. There's a lot of untapped potential in the students I've seen graduate."
Hermione leaned back and pulled at her hair thoughtfully. Her original idea had been to simply hire a bunch of people whose primary duty would be to keep the Ministry off the backs of the real Unspeakables. And if these people picked up some good defense training while doing so, well, all the better for them. But Irma was suggesting actually getting useful people that could become valuable to the organization. "How fast do you think you could get them?"
"Give me a week," Irma said boldly.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at Irma's obvious confidence but nodded her approval nevertheless. A moment later she was shaking her head in disbelief at the quivering eagerness apparent in her head of recruitment and administration. Irma Pince was such a completely different person when outside of Hogwarts; the staid personality was obviously left in the library.
"Since Irma has the people covered, let's talk about what we might want these new staff members to do that could help us but still not reveal our true existence," Hermione said. "Keep in mind that they'll have to be available for the Ministry tasks. Also, we need to determine who will be their nominal boss or bosses. Now, who has ideas…?"
--July 24--
"You want me to hire the Weasley twins?" Hermione asked in disbelief.
"To be apprenticed under Leslie for spell crafting and Jonas for potions," Irma said with a firm nod.
"You do realize that they're complete menaces, don't you?" Hermione asked slowly. "You can't have forgotten all the trouble they caused at Hogwarts."
"All the better," Irma said with a smirk. "Just think what they could come up with if given a proper goal and decent funding."
"I shudder to think," Hermione said with a sigh. She rubbed her temples a moment then waved her approval. "Who's next?"
"Gary Anderson," Irma replied as she set aside the Weasley folder.
"Wasn't he Head Boy my first year?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Yes," Irma confirmed. "He just finished his mastery in trans-dimensional space applications and is looking for a job. He was actually hoping to work for Larson's Custom Tents, but I doubt he'd pass up an opportunity to, supposedly, join the Unspeakables."
"True," Hermione said. She shook her head then and said wryly, "I don't know why we're bothering with this review. We both know I'm going to ratify all your choices."
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't know who I've chosen," Irma said diplomatically.
"I suppose so," Hermione agreed. She leaned an elbow on the table then rested her head on her upraised fist. "You know, I don't feel like much of a leader. All of you simply tell me what you've been doing and what you want and I just nod my head and agree."
"You put your foot down when Jacob wanted to create a banana plantation," Irma offered.
Hermione gave a small laugh and smiled. "That's true. But, really, what kind of leader have I been. I sit in meetings, I nod in agreement, and the rest of the time I spend learning just what I'm supposed to be doing in the first place."
Irma leaned back in her chair and regarded the young woman sitting at the head of the table. Their new leader had been doing so well that no one had thought she might be having a few doubts.
"First off, you've done much more than simply sit in meetings," Irma said firmly. "You're a natural facilitator and have increased the efficiency and productivity of our meetings three-fold. You keep our meetings on topic, stop disagreements, encourage ideas, and ensure we finish in a reasonable amount of time."
"You may feel that your agreement to our proposals is simply a foregone conclusion and of no real importance but that's not true," Irma continued passionately. "We had been leaderless for nearly eleven years. That's eleven years of carrying on with our last set of orders and worrying over whether we were doing the appropriate things. Don't underestimate the power of an approving nod. Just knowing that your leader feels you're doing a good job and that your proposals have merit is a great feeling. I can't even tell you how much morale has improved since you met everyone individually and told them what a good job they'd been doing."
"And as for you spending so much time learning…" Irma paused to laugh lightly. "I guess you don't know how much pride we feel when we see you learning whatever you can to be a good leader. We look at you and puff out our chests and say, "That's our leader. Our leader cares enough about our organization to want to learn all about it. Our leader is working hard to learn all that she needs to know. Our leader is dedicated to being the best." It's even worse for those of us who tutor you privately. Why, we practically strut around like peacocks over the fact that we got to help personally!"
"So don't think for a minute that you're not a good leader," Irma finished vehemently.
Hermione stared at Irma in stunned amazement. It was true that she'd given no thought to the consequences of her actions in the meetings or her sincere words to each of her people. She'd certainly never have imagined that there would be such repercussions as described. As for the last…well, she could imagine Augustus, at least, strutting about. The man was positively insufferable at times.
Slowly, Hermione gave a shy smile. "Thank you," she said softly.
"You're welcome," Irma said kindly.
--July 31--
"He liked your present very much and he made it safely through third stage this morning. He's eating a large stack of strawberry waffles for breakfast and plans to relax and take the next couple days off from his courting," Michael Bartlett said as his leader entered into his workshop followed by her second.
Hermione stopped abruptly then closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She positively hated it when one of her seers answered her questions before she'd even had a chance to ask them. It was even worse if the questions were ones she hadn't even planned on asking. She was sure they did it on purpose just to fluster her. "Thank you, Michael," she said with forced calm.
"You're welcome," Michael said with a grin. "What can I do for you?"
"You're actually going to let me tell you?" Hermione asked sarcastically as she dropped her hand and stared at her head seer. She very deliberately ignored the crystal balls, pendulums, incense, candles, teacups, and various other divinatory paraphernalia that was scattered seemingly haphazardly all around the twenty by twenty foot square room.
"Yeah. All we've been able to figure out is that it has something to do with children and getting them out of the country," Michael said, still smiling. "We don't have any specifics, though. Foreknowledge is the most imprecise aspect of divination."
"Right," Hermione sighed. Despite the assurances she'd received, she didn't quite believe that she would ever get used to the seers. She decided to ignore her discomfiture and simply get on with business. "I want the names and addresses of every muggle-born witch and wizard that's not yet been contacted by Hogwarts. Is that possible?"
"Everything is possible," Michael replied piously.
"Michael!" Hermione said in annoyance.
"All right! All right!" Michael said, holding up his hands in surrender. "That's a two step process. First we'd have to divine one thing – either a location or a name – and then the other. There's going to be a lot of options, though, so focusing in on just one will take some triangulation. We could do it, but it might take us a while. What kind of time-frame were you hoping for?"
Hermione ignored the question and asked, "What if you narrowed the search parameters? For instance, what if you try to divine only the ten-year-olds or nine-year-olds? For that matter, why not try looking for witches born this month, then wizards born this month, then witches born last month, etcetera, etcetera?"
Michael looked thoughtful at the suggestion then grinned and nodded. "That would really help. We'd still only be able to find a few each day, though, given what else we have on our plates."
"That's more than acceptable," Hermione said in relief. "In fact, I only need you to find one per week and get their information to Augustus. He'll assign someone to either get the whole family moved or to kidnap and relocate the child, whatever is deemed appropriate. Maybe you can even help with that determination. Start with the eldest ones, if you please. I know it's too late this year, but I don't want a single muggle-born contacted by Hogwarts next year."
"Consider it done," Michael said. "After we've found everyone, I presume you want us to keep an eye out for new births?"
"Yes," Hermione acknowledged. "I also want…"
--August 8--
Hermione looked around at her department heads and wondered just how much consternation she was going to engender when she made her next suggestion. "I want to start looking for likely candidates to relocate to Loch Tay…"
"But that's our town!" Jonas protested in surprise. The others joined in with their own shocked objections.
"And it's quite big enough to add some lead scholars and master craftsmen," Hermione said with a glare at her people. "It was a hard-won lesson for me, but not all knowledge is held in books."
"I know that," Jonas said, still miffed over the idea of outsiders invading the home village of the Unspeakables.
"Pursuit and preservation of knowledge," Hermione quoted back to her staff. "What good will it be if the new era dawns and we've no one knowledgeable to help teach the people or start the rebuilding?"
"But why Loch Tay?" Jacob asked in agitation. "Why not somewhere else?"
"Where else has the infrastructure to support them?" Hermione asked sensibly.
"Hogsmeade," Jacob said immediately.
"Which Voldemort knows about and we're not protecting until late," Hermione countered.
"What about one of the secreted places?" Irma asked, also obviously unhappy about the suggestion.
"And which one of them can support a population of two or three hundred people who all probably need someone to look after them so they remember to eat and sleep?" Hermione asked.
"What about Hogwarts?" Augustus asked, though his face betrayed his knowledge that that wasn't a good suggestion.
"Even if Dumbledore allowed it, which I doubt, that would only make the school that much bigger of a target," Hermione said. "Since it's planned as the last secret, using it in this manner would be a bad idea."
There were quite a few grumbles but nobody else spoke up.
"You don't like it?" Hermione asked, already knowing the answer, and watched in satisfaction as everybody shook their heads vehemently and uttered varying denials. "Then find me another solution because we're hiding the scholars and craftsmen one way or another."
Hermione sat back and observed the commotion as twelve people desperately tried to find a way to keep their home from being invaded. She'd been counting on this response. She liked all of her people – they were all highly knowledgeable and extremely competent – but they were stuck in a decade-old rut. They needed something, something big, to shock them into thinking creatively.
Just as soon as they came up with the idea of using a muggle high-rise apartment building or two she'd pass over the list she'd made of all the ways she could think of that the individual apartments could be expanded and upgraded with the use of magic.
--August 16--
"Yes, yes, I have everything," Hermione said for the third time. "And even if I forgot something, I'm only going to France, not the moon! Honestly, Augustus, who'd have thought you're such a mother hen?"
Augustus ignored the rhetorical question and handed his leader a small journal. "This is a two-way journal in case you need to speak with me for any reason."
Hermione accepted the journal with a thank you and stuffed it into her already full bag. "And you'll send a call through the torcs if you need my attention, correct?"
"Of course," Augustus said with a nod. "Have a good time."
"I will," Hermione said and pulled out the portkey Harry had sent to her. She narrowed her eyes and pointed a finger at her second. "Buckingham Palace had better still be around when I get back. Disney World or bust."
The last thing Hermione saw after the portkey's activation phrase was Augustus' grin. Several moments of swirling later she barely kept her balance as she and her trunk landed with a thump on a very nice white marble floor in an exceptionally beautiful and classy receiving room right in front of a nervously pacing Harry Potter.
"Hermione!" Harry cried and engulfed his friend in an enthusiastic hug.
"Harry! I'm glad to see you!" Hermione said and hugged back with equal fervor before parting and looking at her friend. She immediately noted the wildness in Harry's eyes.
"Oh, Harry, whatever it is, we'll fix it," Hermione said earnestly.
Harry laughed a little hysterically. "This can't be fixed, Hermione."
"Then we'll find a way to deal with it," Hermione said firmly. "Now, this room is gorgeous but I'm sure the rest of the estate is equally pretty. Why don't you give me a tour? You'll have to show me your room. And didn't you say that you loved the gardens here? I want to see those, too. And…"
"All right!" Harry said with a laugh. "I'll show you around. We have all day, too. Grandfather had some business to take care of so you won't get to meet him until dinner. Neville's arriving this afternoon, though, so we have to come back here to meet him. Let's go to the gardens first. I think they're prettiest in the morning…