Okay, sorry it took me a little longer than usual to update. I've been incredibly LAZY. Which shouldn't be the case because I'm back at school…
Anyway, here is another chapter. Now, I've kind of space jumped here ten years into the future but that was because I didn't want you guys to suffer through a few chapters of Hermione being lonely and sad and depressed…because that would have bored the heck out of both of us!
ENJOY!
Disclaimer: There's only one person who owns all this (such as the extract from the Goblet of Fire)…and it isn't me!
You're going places, Hermione
~~!!!~~
Chapter Twelve: The graduate
10 years later...
"I don't think I've ever taught such a remarkable young lady! You're going places, Hermione. Good luck with whatever you choose to do in life. I know you'll go far." Her Professor praised, looking at her as proudly as any parent would as he handed her a diploma; Her M.G. ( Magical Grant) in Advanced Arithmancy.
Hermione looked at the piece of paper in her hand, smiling happily as she made her way back to the seat between her parents. Her Mum was crying hysterically and her Dad was smiling broadly.
"You little genius," He said, "I couldn't be more excited if you were my own child."
Hermione beamed, not even bothering to correct him.
"I hope," Mrs Granger sniffed, "That this means you're coming home?"
Mr Granger looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "Dear, we discussed this. And the outcome of the discussion was that we weren't to mention that until after the ceremony."
Mrs Granger looked away and wiped her face briskly, nodding slightly. Hermione watched her parents with fading joy. What her mother had just asked was something that Hermione wasn't even sure of.
She hadn't been to England in the tens years since she'd left it, despite the ferocious promises that she had made to her friends and parents that she would visit on holidays.
Something always seemed to come up that stopped her from fulfilling those promises. Be it extra credit work or additional assignments.
Contact with her friends had been very consistent at first, but eventually in the end it had wavered and lessened. Hermione was still in touch with Harry and Ginny but the owls passed between her and each of them verged on only half a dozen per year. Even contact with her parents was miniscule. She only saw them when they made the effort to come to America to see her.
For Hermione, it was a difficult decision. Should she stay in America, which she had grown to love and where she had lived for the past tens years, or should she go back to England, to the life she had left behind?
"Come on dear," Her mother said, jerking her from her thoughts, "It's over now. You're father want's to take you out to dinner to celebrate."
* * *
"It's been very lonely without you, you know," Her mother told her, during dinner that night, "Your father and I have really missed you."
Hermione smiled at her; "I've missed you both too."
"Will you come back?" Mrs Granger asked quietly.
"I'll see Mum."
"Because I don't know what's keeping you here," Mrs Granger continued, lowering her voice, "I don't like this country."
Hermione sighed.
"I like it here, it's rather nice and quiet."
"What about your friends back home?"
"What about them?" Hermione asked, "I have friends here as well!"
That wasn't exactly true. Hermione had been dubbed the 'Scholarship Student' since the other university students had found out how she had managed to get into Sister Salem. They were of a higher class than Hermione, and not one social occasion had passed in which she had been invited.
"What is it you're hiding from, dear?" Mrs Granger suddenly asked.
"What? I'm not hiding from anything Mum!" Hermione frowned.
"Now, now, don't lie to me," Her mother said sternly, "Is there something terrible in England you don't want to go back to? Did you have a row with one of your friends?"
Hermione shook her head, raising her drink to her lips.
"Is it…is it about the…" Mrs Granger bit her bottom lip and suddenly looked as though she wanted to stop talking, "The baby…perhaps?"
Hermione gagged and sprayed her drink all over the table.
"What?"
"Nothing, dear. Nothing."
"No Mum! What?"
"Oh," Her mother closed her eyes, "I promised him. I said I wouldn't say anything. Don't be mad with me, dear! Please don't. I just want you to come back home so badly-"
"Promised who, what? Tell me." Hermione pleaded.
Mrs Granger was hesitant, "Ronald Weasley dear. He…he came to us a while back, not long after you'd left in fact, and he told us about…well what happened at the end of your final year. He thought it was our right to know we had…some…I mean a grandchild…but he made me promise not to tell you we knew. He said you…you wouldn't appreciate it."
"Appreciate it?" Hermione said through gritted teeth, "Appreciate it? Of course I wouldn't! The deal was for him to take the baby and raise it himself so I wouldn't have to do anything, or get you and Dad involved. I don't believe him!"
"Oh don't be mad! Your father and I are very glad he told us!"
"Well, I'm not! It was all easily worked out, now that he's told you it has made it difficult!"
"No," Mrs Granger corrected, "Nothing's been made difficult at all. He told us years ago and we're very glad he did. Were…were you ever going too?"
Hermione avoided her mother's gaze; "No…I don't think I would have."
They sat in silence for a moment, Hermione in shock and her mother looking worried, before a loud shout erupted from the bar.
"That's her!" Mr Granger bellowed, pointing over at Hermione, "The one with the frizzy wig! That's my daughter! Just graduated she did…oh, I told you? Well did I tell you she's a genius? Oh, I did eh? Hmm…"
"Perhaps we should get your father and take him back to the motel?" Her mother wondered, smiling ruefully.
Hermione nodded and together they heaved Mr Granger back to the Howdy Rowdy Inn, where all three were staying.
* * *
That night, Hermione tossed and turned in her sleep. She wasn't having a nightmare; it was some sort of dream. A memory.
She was sitting in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, looking over at Harry and Ron. Only, they were very young.
Dumbledore was standing behind the middle of the staff table at the front of the hall and he was addressing every student present.
"Remember Cedric," Dumbledore's voice said dreamily, as though far away, "Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy…"
Hermione sat up in bed with a start, fresh tears clinging to her eyelashes and cheeks. She had remembered the end of her forth year at Hogwarts after Cedric Diggory had been murdered by Lord Voldemort. It wasn't a nice memory.
Hermione kicked back her bed covers and made her way over to the window of the small room she was staying in. It conjoined with her parents' room next door, so she was careful to remain quiet.
"Why did I remember that?" She wondered absently, opening the window for some fresh air. A cool breeze swept into the room and Hermione frowned as she realised something.
She had done what was easy in life.
She had left England, Ron, her baby, Harry, Ginny and her parents…because it had been easy to do so. To stay and attend a local university, helping Ron to raise a baby she didn't love and give up her dream of attending Sister Salem would have been the hard thing to do.
"But it would have been right." Hermione muttered to herself.
She felt so guilty at that moment as she ran through everything she had to done in the past ten years. It had all been for herself. But maybe, just maybe, there was still a chance left to fix things.
Without even realizing what she was really doing, Hermione put on her nightgown and opened the door that led into her parents' room.
"Mum…" She whispered, shaking her mother gently awake.
Mrs Granger rolled over and looked at the clock by the bed.
"Hermione? What are you doing dear? It's nearly three in the morning…" She said thickly.
Hermione sat down next to her mother and said with utter resolution, "Mum, I'm going to come home."
~!!!~
A/N: And so the DRAMA begins…hmm…well, we'll see what happens. For those that were curious about the twins, they come into the next chapter!
I finally have time to respond to some to reviews!
triniroo: I didn't know there wasn't anymore schooling after Hogwarts! Gosh, that'd be great in real life! Thanks for telling me; I'll make a note of it in the future!
John Steppenwolf: Oh, I'm never sure if you actually like this story or not…lol…you'll find out their names in the next chapter…as soon as I pick them. I'm trying to come up with cool ones!
Susan D: Thanks! You're reviews are always short and sweet!
HermionesTwin1: Don't worry, Ron and Hermione will work it out in there own strange way! I can't imagine a story where they don't!
Lady Phedre: Lol, yeah. Poor Draco. Your review made me laugh!
Yami Boy: Thanks for the nice reviews you have ALWAYS given me! And sorry about the setup…I'll try and have as few of them as possible!
The Mad Gremlin: *cringe* I really hope I never do something as sappy as THAT. But, as you can see, Hermione didn't run back. She stayed gone for ten years…and that spell can't be reversed so…
NEXT: THE SHOCK