Stella's mother and grandfather were not prepared.
"Er...your grandmother?" Stella's mother had jerked upright from her leaned-back position in her comfortable chair.
Her grandfather's expression turned almost instantly from merry and content to grim and rather nervous. He seemed not to want to say anything without Mother's consent.
"And don't lie to me," Stella reminded them. "I know something's going on."
Mother and Grandfather looked at each other. After a few moments' hesitation, Mother sighed.
"Alright," she said. "You win."
Stella did not speak, but waited patiently.
"I didn't want to tell you this till you were a bit older, mind," Mother said, irritated. "I shouldn't have slipped like that earlier on."
Grandpa took over. "Don't think for a second that we were conspiring against you," he began. Seeing that Stella looked unconvinced, he added, "We wanted to keep this from you for your own safety and well being."
"Right then," Stella's mother paused,"It's about your transformations."
Hermione Granger climbed up the stairs to her room after dinner. It would be less than a week until she was back at Hogwarts. She had finished all her homework in the first week of vacation, so she had nothing left to do. But her luck would soon change.
As she sat down at her desk an owl flew through her window.
"Hedwig! Hi!"
After Hedwig nipped her finger affectionately, Hermione untied the piece of parchment from Harry's owl's leg and gave her owl a snack. She read this:
Dear Hermione,
Hi! I hope you feed Hedwig plenty while she's there. The Dursleys have not been feeding us enough.
I'm completely lost on that potions essay. Did you know the Slytherins only have to write three feet of parchment? That's two less than us.
Anyway, I just needed to make sure Hedwig was being fed. I'll see you in Daigon Alley in a few days. Thanks for the Magical Pranks book! I never would have thought that you would encourage that kind of of thing. I sent Ron one to use on Fred and George.
Harry
Hermione smiled as she read the last sentence. Harry and Ron were great, but sometimes Hermione wished she had some female friends. Lavander & Parvati didn't count, even though she had shared a room with them for the last four years. They were way too annoying.
Oh well. There wasn't any point in being dissatisfied when she already had two great friends...
Stella looked, wide-eyed, at Mother and Grandfather.
"How come you never told me this before?" her voice broke.
Mother tried to hug her, but she pushed her away.
"I need to go and think about all this," she said as she fastened the clasp of her cloak.
Grandfather rose in protest, but Stella was out the door within ten seconds. He looked at Mother.
"She's never been here before!" he said. "What if she gets lost?"
But Mother did not share the same concern.
"She won't," she almost whispered as she gazed at the spot where her daughter had sat just moments before, an expression of love and admiration on her face. "She never does."
"But will she come back?" Grandfather was still standing, ready to do anything at Mother's word.
Mother nodded and said confidently, "She just needs to be alone for a while. She'll be back in bed tomorrow morning." She sighed and rose. Together, they began to clean up.
Once she was several houses down from her grandfather's house, Stella stopped to rest. She hadn't stopped running for ten minutes. She looked around. Where could she transform without being seen?
As she ran, she longed for her father. He had always helped her through her transformations. Had he been here, she knew she would not have had to worry. She would not have had to be alone.
But Stella pushed these thoughts from her as she spotted a nearby park. She ran as fast as she could. She couldn't, after all, transform in the middle of the street. In the park, she could at least hide amongst some trees. She was still several yards away from the park entrance before she felt her body lurch. She would transform soon.
Damn, she thought. I wish I had control over this...
But Stella knew this was impossible. She was transforming in the middle of the street, and she had no control over it.
Finally, half transformed, she was able to enter the park. She found clusters of trees quickly and crawled amongst them. Within minutes, she was fully transformed.
A guard had heard the ruckus that she had made and was investigating. Lucky for him, he stopped and gave up a few feet from where she was. Had he pressed further, he would have seen something that would have boggled his mind. For hidden in the trees was Luna the unicorn.