Hermione flipped the page of her newest transfiguration text, scribbling a note into her muggle notebook as she did. It hadn't been difficult to guess that "Standard Book of Spells – Grade 3" would be on her book list for the next year so she'd persuaded her parents to stop by Diagon Alley to purchase it on the way back from the station. She'd need every head start that she could get with the extra workload she planned to take on.

A shadow fell across her and she looked up to see a tall man standing over her. She hurriedly pushed her notepad over the wizarding text, hoping that he hadn't seen it but his hand snapped out too fast, preventing her from covering it.

His eyes were different colours, she noticed as he scanned the text. He had a buzz of short dark blond hair over his head and his clothes were well made but very old fashioned. He wore a necktie with his billowy white shirt and jacket, a coat draped over his arm.

'You're a witch.' The man stated and Hermione finally relaxed, understanding why he had seemed so interested. It was hardly common to meet another one of their kind in the muggle world. 'A Hogwarts student I would guess?'

Hermione nodded and the man smiled genuinely, which seemed to light up his face.

'I attended Durmstrang myself.' Which made sense, because he looked young enough to have only recently graduated but Hermione didn't recognize him. It also explained the German accent and the almost military haircut that seemed to only just be beginning to grow out.

'Hermione Granger.' The young witch offered out her hand for him to shake and the wizard returned the gesture with a grin.

'Gerard Abernathy, hopefully I'll see you around.' He then wandered off across the park, arms swinging casually as he strolled down the left hand fork. He couldn't live too close to her then, because she had to walk down the right hand one to get home. Hopefully she'd see him again though because he'd seemed nice and intelligent enough. It would be nice not to be totally isolated this holiday.

Sure enough, Gerard passed by the next morning as well, and the next, always pausing to exchange a few friendly words; she quickly learned that he was studying muggle politics at a university in London. Apparently his muggle father had insisted that he get a degree and they'd finally managed to agree that this particular one would be transferable enough to help with the career he wanted to have in the ministry.

He was certainly an interesting person, with an incredible disdain for muggles despite his half-blood status and his studies at a muggle university. She could only assume that was as a result of his education at Durmstrang which was notoriously blood-supremecist.

So she made it her mission to introduce him to muggle culture. When he walked past on Saturday she made sure to be using her laptop and offered to show him how it worked. He agreed easily, seeming slightly bemused as she showed him how to take notes and how she could keep her files organized. She ran the calculator and the translation software, then they moved to the shade of a nearby tree to play a little two player video game that had them both trying to move brightly coloured blocks around to escape a dungeon.

Several hours of good humoured arguments later and they had completed the simple game, and Hermione made her excuses, claiming that she had to get home before her parents began to worry.

Unfortunately she was already too late for that and her parents demanded to know why she'd been out past her usual breakfast time. Which meant she had try to come up with an excuse because she was fairly certain that her parents would disapprove of her spending so much time with an adult they had never met. Unfortunately excuses were not her forte, so her father sat with her the next morning reading the newspaper as she waited for Gerard. She was so nervous that she couldn't actually relax and instead just ended up anxiously watching the path.

He appeared right on schedule, strolling towards them with a newspaper tucked under his arm. All he needed was a cane and he could have passed as a 20th century gentleman. His blond hair had started to grow out and it seemed he'd had a haircut since their last meeting, his hair now styled so that it swept upwards at the top.

To his credit his steps didn't even falter as she noticed Hermione's father but he didn't take a seat immediately as he usually did. Instead, those strangely coloured eyes flickered between the two of them, quickly making the familial connection. Hermione's father had noticed his arrival by now and there was a tense moment as both men took one another in, before Gerard bowed and introduced himself, complimenting Hermione just enough to flatter her father but not enough to seem like he was interested in her.

Her father didn't relax, Gerard's charm bouncing off his grumpy façade but the wizard didn't seem fussed as he took his usual seat opposite them and passed her the paper.

'Black's been sighted in Suffolk.' He pointed out the front page article and Hermione obediently read it, even though she was unfamiliar with the name "Black". Her father tried to peer over her shoulder without taking his suspicious gaze off Gerard.

'Who's Black?' Hermione asked, she was fairly certain that the name was a pureblood one, but she had no idea which black this article referenced.

'Sirius Black. He's meant to be the one who betrayed the Potters, he escaped Azkaban a few weeks ago.' Gerard answered, then he pulled a large book out of his pocket and began studying, completely ignoring Hermione and her father. It surprised her because he'd never studied with her before but she couldn't deny that it certainly seemed to reassure her father that he wasn't interested in her as anything more than a studying wizard.

Hermione forced herself to do the same as her father pulled the prophet over to himself and began browsing the continuation of the article on page 3. For several minutes they continued in silence, interrupted only by questions; Gerard asked for clarification on the electronic voting system in America, Hermione's father wanted to know how the dementors kept control and who "Gellert Grindelwald" was.

Gerard looked up quickly with an unintelligible look on his face, staring at him searchingly.

'What about him?' He demanded quickly, pulling the paper towards him and scanning the article. Hermione's father pointed out the section and Hermione craned over the table to read the section.

It was a small reference about how Black was suspected to have orchestrated the release of Gellert Grindelwald but Gerard spent several minutes just staring at the short sentence. A slight cough from her father reminded them that he was still waiting for an answer.

'Grindelwald was a dark wizard that conquered most of Europe in the 1940's.' Gerard finally answered in a tight, measured voice.

'So how is his escape smaller news that this Black figure?' Hermione's father questioned, watching Gerard's strange reaction.

'Grindelwald would be about 110 by now and his followers are all dead. Besides, he never had much influence in Britain. My father spent many years in Grindelwald's prison before his downfall.'

Immediately, Mr. Granger's suspicion melted into pity as he apologized for bringing up the topic. Gerard smiled and graciously accepted the apology, reassuring him that he wasn't to know before leaving with a friendly invitation to dinner.