First off, I'd like to address something. I have been writing fanfiction (and roleplaying) for about 8 years now. In that time, I have become a much more advanced writer than I used to be. However, that does not mean I am perfect. I'm a college student, who majors in Theatre Performance. Most of my time that isn't spent doing things on stage or to help prepare for shows, I am spending doing work for other classes. I don't have time to go through and edit chapters like I want too. Generally these days, I write them and they go up as is. I have looked for beta readers but anyone I have contacted that was within the qualifications I have, has not responded. My chapter lengths are about an average of 2000 words. This is about all I can give in the current circumstances I am placed it. I'm sorry, I know they're not that long, and I can't update that often, but that's just my life. I don't have time. It sucks, I get it. But I am one person who is doing her best to get an education, have a social life, and be creative. Fanfiction is supposed to be fun. I totally get constructive criticism, and I welcome it. But I'm not trying to write a bestseller, here. I'm just trying to let other people enjoy my ideas. I am no longer changing things as I have in the past because of some people's opinions.
Thank you all so much for your support throughout my crazy ass life.
I love you guys so much *kisses*
Please leave a review! It helps keep my spirits up!
"What do you mean 'not talking'? Sounds like rubbish to me." Lily scoffed, as she chewed on a buttery scone.
"Exactly what it sounds like. Not talking. Nothing, zilch. Not even a glance." Hermione sighed, her chin propped up in one hand, while she lazily stirred porridge with the other.
"What are they so mad about, anyways? It's not like it's your fault." Lily rolled her eyes.
"Tell them that," Hermione muttered, dropping her spoon into the bowl. This action caused some porridge to splatter over her robes.
"Bloody hell, just can't get a break can you?" James asked as he sat next to Lily. He gave the girl a kiss on the cheek before pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice.
"Unfortunately not." Hermione huffed, as she rubbed the porridge off with a nearby napkin.
"They'll come around eventually, Hermione. Just give it a little time." James offered her a sweet smile. Hermione nodded, giving him a short one back.
"Well, I'll leave you two to it, then. Wouldn't want to interrupt a date. Thanks for the chat, Lily. See you soon." Hermione placed a bit of money on the table before grabbing her bag and walking out of the Leaky.
The walk to Madam Primpernelle's was slow. Hermione didn't even want to admit to anyone that she was going into the blasted shop. But she was. She had no other choice. The weight of the war was finally beginning to wear on her. Hermione had found her first gray hair.
It could have been a mixture of stressors over time that had made her pop out her first silver, but she was mostly going to blame it on the war. Hermione may be a bit older than the others, but she wasn't old enough to be growing gray hairs. The thought was merely ghastly. At 21 years old, -or 17 now, if you looked at it from the other's point of view- she was going to sprout silvers. That was not something she wanted anyone to know about. She did not need any 'older woman' jokes, regardless of how right they were.
The bell in the shop sounded like the tinkling of fairy wings. The smell of too many perfumes made her nose itch, and the pink trim made her want to vomit.
"Good day, dear. How can I help you?"
Hermione sized the woman up quickly. Her skin was smooth, except for a beauty mark underneath her left eye. Her hair was platinum blonde and pulled up into a strange hairstyle, but Hermione had to say it really accentuated her cheekbones. It was kind of obvious to Hermione that the woman was older than she looked, but she didn't mind it.
"Good morning, ma'am. I'm looking for some hair potions. Sprouting my first gray's already." Hermione's voice was light and friendly.
"Of course, dear. I think I have just the thing. Come along."
The worker leads her to the back of the shop where various bottles sat upon a large wall shelf. It was strange to see so many different colors at once. But pretty, at least.
"Ah, here we go!" The woman turned to her with a pear shaped bottle that had a purple liquid inside of it. "Massage this into your hair every time you shower for the next week. Should keep those grays away for a few months at the least. At most, a year."
The worker rung up her order, offering her a few other things, to which Hermione declined. The woman placed a few samples into her bag anyways and gave a wink. Hermione thanked her graciously, paid, and left the store.
"There's my girl!"
Hermione was startled when an arm was slung around her shoulders. She almost pushed it off and sent a wandless 'Stupefy' before she caught a glimpse at who was by her side.
She hadn't known his name, but he had a great resemblance to Fred and George, and Hermione knew he must have been one of Molly's or Arthur's siblings.
His brown eyes gazed into hers pleadingly, as he leaned over to very quietly whisper in her ear, disguising it as a cheek kiss. "Play along."
"There you are, darling. I was just about to run over to Zonko's and see if that was where you ran off too." Hermione had absolutely no idea why she was playing along with this, but maybe it was because his eyes reminded her so much of Fred.
"Ah, yes, that is where I was." He grinned down at her. When he looked away from her was when she noticed that there were three girls standing just across from them.
"So she's not fake." One of them hummed.
"She's not even as pretty as us!"
"Hey, don't talk about my lady like that. I appreciate the offer, really, but as you can see I am very much tied." His voice was polite, but actually held a bit of hardness in it.
After a few more harsh words, the girls stomped off, and the man turned to her.
"Thank you, very much." He told her, shooting a wink.
"Don't mention it." She replied, giving him a soft smile.
"Are you from around here? I don't think I've ever seen you before." He asked as he dropped his arm from her shoulder.
"Actually, I just transferred to Hogwarts this semester. But my Uncle runs Hog's Head, so I'm more familiar with Hogsmeade than Diagon Alley." The lie fell through her teeth way too easily. But that was her life now.
"I graduated from Hogwarts last year! I'm in Auror training right now, and my twin is off in Scotland looking for a job with magical creatures." He told her, an excited grin on his face.
"That's...interesting?" It was a question because she still couldn't figure out who he was. However, the twin part totally set her off. It was so weird to have two sets of twins that looked very similar. But she figured that genetics were largely into play, and maybe even family magic.
"Can I buy you a tea or anything? Perhaps butterbeer?" He questioned.
"Tea would be lovely, mister…?" She prompted, waiting for him to introduce himself.
"Prewett! Fabian Prewett! So sorry about that, love." He shook her hand softly, with a sheepish grin.
"No worries. Hermione Granger." She bowed her head to him a bit.
"Well then, Miss Granger, may I escort you to Rosa Lee's?" He asked as he held his arm out to her.
"You may."
RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS
"Wait a minute. You're telling me that they got angry at you for hiding your scars?"
"That I am, Mister Prewett." Hermione hummed, as she took another sip of her fourth tea.
They had been in Rosie Lee's for a couple of hours now, sharing tea, biscuits, and stories. One thing had led to another and he had asked why she'd had so many scars, which lead to the story of her boys being angry.
"I'm pretty sure it's Fabian by now. You know much more about me than my mother does." He laughed.
Hermione nodded, a soft smile on her face.
"Yes, at first they were all sad and sappy about it. You know, telling me that it didn't matter and I didn't have to hide those kinds of things from them. I was beautiful anyway. You know, normal stuff for significant others to say. And then as the scars got worse, their reactions turned worse. They were angry and demanding to know who did what." She shook her head, pausing for a moment to bite into a biscuit. "They were being really dramatic about it. It's all in my past, and I intend to keep it that way. I don't think they're mad at me, specifically, I just think they're mad because their instincts are telling them they have to protect me when I don't want or need their protection. I've been doing dangerous stuff all of my life, and it's not going to change now that I have two men in my life." She stopped talking again, just letting the information sink in between them.
"What are they? Your boyfriends, or? I mean you called them 'significant others' which sounds more like you've already had a bonding with the two of them." Fabian pointed out.
"Well, I just don't know what to call them. I don't have intentions of being in a relationship at the moment...I mean we are technically dating, but I didn't want the pressures of a label while I'm trying to do other things...Now that I really think about it, I don't see what a label would change. We all spend practically every waking moment together." She sighed.
"Maybe you should all sit down and talk about it? I mean, I'm not good at relationships, but it seems like it might help work some things out. I don't know, it's just an outside opinion." Fabian told her rubbing his chin scruff.
That was probably the biggest difference between Fabian and the twins. He had the capacity to grow facial hair. Hermione liked it...a lot.
"Yes, we'll sit down and talk for five minutes before Sirius decides that everything is cool, and wants to get a leg over." Hermione huffed, rolling her eyes.
"Sirius Black?" He asked as he leaned forward a bit in his chair.
"Yes, of course. Is there another Sirius?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not that I know of...But you're right, he'll get a leg over. Whether it's you or someone else." He leaned back into his chair once more, sipping on his tea.
"Excuse me?"
"Black is notoriously known for his cheating. Didn't you know that? Lad went through at least half of the Slytherin house last year. And a few 'Puffs." His voice was soft, as if he was expecting the information to hurt her.
It sort of did. Hermione really didn't like the thought of Sirius with anyone else, but she knew how he had been in the future anyways. Just as flirty as he was now. It wasn't that surprising to know he had slept with many people, but the cheating did surprise him.
"You think he's cheating on me?" She asked, looking up at him for clarification.
"I mean, I don't know. I haven't been around the lad since last year. You could have changed him. You and the other part of your triad, whoever he may be. I also never took Sirius for one to be into other guys, but he does really like sex." Fabian shrugged.
"I..see...I've got to go." She stood, grabbing her things.
"Hermione, I'm sorry." He said, standing with her.
"No, no, it's fine. This was lovely, we should do it again sometime. I'll owl you." She gave him a smile, and left the tea shop, apparating before he could follow her.
RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS RHS
"Hermione? I brought you some food. I know you said for the house elfs to drop by, but I wanted to come see how you were doing." James sat a tray of food in front of her on her bed. He sat on the other side of the tray, folding his legs in.
"I'm alright. Thank you." She closed her book and sat it on the bedside table since he was obviously going to stay whether she wanted him to or not.
"It's no problem...They've been asking me how you are, you know? If you're still mad at them." He swallowed loud enough that she heard.
"I wasn't mad at all. I was really upset, but now I'm just confused and don't want to deal with it. If they want to act like children, that's on them." She shrugged, as she dipped a slice of crusty bread into the bowl of soup.
"Just give them more time, they'll come 'round." He told her, giving an awkward smile.
"There's nothing for them to come 'round to, James. They reacted this badly to just seeing my scars, how are they going to be when they find out the whole story? I obviously can't tell them any time soon." She gave a soft sigh as she chewed. She wanted to tell them, she really did. But it was obvious it would only make things worse.
"You've got to tell them, 'Mines." He demanded.
"I will! I just want to wait until after Albus and I are done with our stuff. I can't have them wanting to tag along to make sure I'll be okay. Because I will be perfectly fine without them there." She huffed, keeping her eyes away from him.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds coming from Hermione's eating.
"They miss you-"
"It's been a day. They need more time to simmer down, and so do I." She stated plainly. Her food suddenly tasted like cardboard, and she pushed the tray away.
"I'm just ready for this semester to start so we can all get busy and not worry about anything else." She sighed deeply, leaning back against the headboard.
"Me too...me too."
