A/N: A second chapter? So soon after the last one? If you're really lucky, we might have one day. We may not, but we might. I'm glad you're all loving Jenny's magnanimous support. She's a good egg really ;)

Thank you, as ever, to the wonder Lib McGranger. I'm so glad she's stuck around, despite my hideous grammar and my terribly confusing sentences. Lol

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When she came down the stairs, following her mother, Hermione was still wiping the tears from her eyes. Minerva met her gaze in the kitchen and immediately joined her.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly

"Fine," Hermione nodded. "Just," she glanced in the living room where her parents were whispering together. It struck her as Minerva wiped a thumb under her eyes, that she and Minerva were doing the same thing. Just as she was about to pull away, her mother looked up and smirked at her, making her blush against her will. She realised that Minerva was still speaking.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said. "I didn't hear a word of that."

"I was just asking if you wanted tea," Minerva chuckled. "Or a Calming Draught?"

"No calming draught," Hermione chuckled. "I'm fine."

"You promise?"

Hermione sighed and squeezed Minerva's hand where it rested on her arm.

"I promise."

Minerva nodded and turned back to the tea, waving her wand and levitating it into the living room. She passed out the cups again and this time, everyone sat back with a sigh. She sipped hers for a while before she realised she'd prefer just to get on with it.

"Alright," she said, timidly. "Where do we start?"

Jenny met her eyes and then looked across at Minerva for a moment before she waved her hand a little cooly and invited her to speak. Hermione sat forward as Minerva cleared her throat and began outlining why Hermione had been right about them needing to vacate the premises and her reasons for that. Hermione watched, having not really ever seen Minerva in negotiations. She knew she must do it a lot. The Order was a democracy, after all, but it was something to behold as she turned on all the charm and all her powers of persuasion against two people Hermione knew would be hard to bend.

However, as Hermione often found, when Minerva McGonagall spoke, people listened. As the day wore on, they went round and round fleshing out options and discounting them immediately or sometimes a little later. Everyone was getting more and more frustrated and Hermione felt completely out of place. Though Minerva did her best to involve her and to treat her like an adult whenever they were together, her parents clearly found it hard. Anytime Hermione suggested something, they simply nodded and turned back to Minerva.

It was incredibly frustrating.

Just as her mother's voice was finding its edge, Hermione stood.

"Stop," she said quickly. "Before we get derailed by frustration. The way I see it, is that Mum, Dad? You need to go into hiding. You live a far too open and expansive life for us to consider protecting you during it all and to ask you to curtail it clearly isn't going to work," she made a face and her mother had the decency to blush; Jenny did like her social lunches. "The options, as far as I can see it, are that you close up the practice for a while. There are other dentists in the area you are friends with that would take your patients. They would do that favour for you. To do so would mean you would have to stay at home wherever possible. That has its own dangers as the house and you, are still where it was prior to the spells. Should they find the location, which we can do our best to prevent, it would still be here." She glanced at Minerva who smiled encouragingly. "The second option is for you to leave. I realise that there are issues surrounding that as well, but it is the much safer option. I know," she held up her hand to stop her dad from speaking. "That you need a way to live. I don't have an answer for that. I have friends who would loan you some money to live, but" she rolled her eyes at the chorus of refusals. "I know you both would refuse."

"Quite right," Sam said testily.

She rolled her eyes and sighed, looking at Minerva. Stuck at a dead-end, they all fell silent as they considered their options.

"I realise," Jenny said, clearing her throat self-consciously as everyone looked at her. "That we aren't being very helpful, but you must understand that this is a big ask."

"We know, Mum," Hermione rubbed her forehead. "We really do."

"And I know you have seen the best of Hermione," she continues, turning to Minerva. Hermione squinted at her. "But we have not, so it is still a little bit of a shock to see her commanding the room like that. In our minds, she is still the little girl who walked around with her nose in a book and would miss dinner if we didn't remind her."

"Oh, she is still like that," Minerva chuckled, winking at Hermione. "But without a doubt, she is also one of our greatest assets," she smiled proudly. Hermione blushed under the scrutiny. "But I do understand. This process has highlighted to me how unfair we are being to our Muggle parents. There are some immovable issues, of course. Due to the spells on Hogwarts, we cannot offer tours and visits as I think some Muggle schools offer, but we also do nothing to ease the separation. We essentially ask you to put your children on a train in September and pick them up again the following year and assume you will be okay with everything that goes on in between. I -" Minerva got a strange look on her face and looked at Hermione carefully. "Hmm."

"What?" Hermione said, catching the twinkle in those green eyes.

"I happen to own a cottage in one of the Wizarding villages; Banchory, just outside of Aberdeen. It is currently sitting empty after the previous tenants vacated recently and is quite near to the city. It is undoubtedly one of the most progressive towns in the UK, on our side, but also one of the smallest. I believe," she said carefully. "We could quietly move your parents into the bungalow, under the nose of the neighbours, and more importantly the Ministry. I have an idea of how they might earn some coin as well, while they are there." She turned back to Hermione's parents. "I, of course, would charge nothing for you to stay."

"Min -"

"That seems like a poor business strategy," Sam muttered, looking at her shrewdly. "What is your idea for us earning an income?"

"I am quite wealthy in my own right," Minerva said with just a little haughtiness to it. "And as I said, this has opened my eyes to how much growth we need to do as a school, moving forward. I would propose that you both, as intelligent and sensible people, become the Muggle ambassadors to Hogwarts."

Hermione's jaw dropped as she realised how brilliant Minerva really was.

"That's -"

"Quite brilliant, if I do say so myself," Minerva smirked, cutting her off.

"How would that work?" Sam asked.

"At this stage I am unsure. I would have to propose it to Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster. At such a time as this, I don't think taking that proposal to the Board would be a good idea, nor making the position public, but there are procedural manuals that need to be," she winced. "Updated and amended. While I will not have time to join you very often, I will endeavour to make myself available to you, should you need me. Otherwise," she smiled encouragingly. "You could treat it as a working holiday?"

"Why wouldn't you take it to the Board at this time?" Hermione asked, genuinely interested in the process.

"One of the Board seats belong to the House of Malfoy, currently occupied by Lucius' wife, Narcissa while he is," she winked at Hermione. "Occupied elsewhere. It is best if none of the Malfoy household know where your parents are, though of the three of them she is the lesser evil."

Hermione swallowed at that, and rubbed her chest, remembering the Ministry quite clearly. Her mother, who was a very observant woman at the best of times, turned to her with a question on her face.

Hermione answered despite her reticence.

"Lucius Malfoy is a parent at the school. He is also arguably the most well-known, well-funded Death Eater," she muttered. She glanced at them and realised that their blank looks meant she had missed explaining that part. "Sorry. Death Eaters are Voldemort's henchman," she didn't like that word. "Generals," she shrugged.

"That is a better word for them, yes," Minerva sighed. "They have sworn an oath to him as servants of the dark. An oath only Voldemort himself," she winced. "Or death, can release them from."

Hermione saw her mother's brain spinning fast and glanced at Minerva. There was a question coming that they would not like, but Minerva looked unworried. She settled her hands in her lap and waited.

"I have to say, Minerva, that when you explained Hogwarts to us, this was not in the brochure."

Hermione didn't know why she had worried. Minerva smiled for a moment, before chuckling and relaxing.

"You are quite right, of course. When I came to you, that September, I could not have imagined what would occur. I," she groaned and rubbed her temples. She winced as she hit the bruise and sat back again. "The unfortunate truth is that, when Hermione joined Hogwarts, she happened to arrive under a perfect storm of circumstances. Harry Potter, merely a babe when he defeated the Dark Lord, also returned to the Wizarding World for the first time since that day. His presence set off a chain reaction - some of which righted wrongs, some; more heartache. As sometimes happens, our government has grown fat and lazy with power and time. Had we had a more decisive Minister, things perhaps would have been different. For all of that, I can only apologise again."

Hermione watched her mother and Minerva stare at each other. Though it seemed pleasant enough, there was a conversation happening between them that Hermione could not read. Eventually, her mother stood and looked at both of them, before she turned back to Minerva.

"I'm rather hungry. I saw rather a large spread on the table and I'd like to thank you for that. What do we think about an early lunch, so that I can cook the turkey for a late dinner? Are you staying that long?"

Minerva smiled and stood, rubbing her hands together.

"What an excellent idea. And yes. We shall stay as long as Hermione wants, I have no plans to speak of."

Hermione watched the two women go and turned to her Dad.

"What was that?"

Her dad pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"Peanut, I have no idea. Sometimes it's best just to nod and smile when she gets like that. It does take the stress out of things."

She laughed and they followed the two women into the kitchen.