The English Rose was dark and quiet as it sat closed for the evening. Pumpkins, friendly ghosts and autumn colored leaf wreaths adorned the front of the building. The shop was always known for its festive decorations and new ownership wouldn't stop the tradition from continuing. Hermione had always been a fan of fall, Halloween and if she were being honest with herself, any and all holiday celebrations. She couldn't help but get swept up in decorating for every occasion possible. She had been at the Rose for six months now and this was the first holiday she would celebrate there. Hermione even convinced her Grandfather that he must dress up in a matching outfit with her on Halloween so they could give candy out to trick or treaters.
After closing up the shop, Hermione retired to her apartment and was sitting in her favorite armchair, outfitted in fall themed pajamas, watching a horror movie while sipping from a nice warm cup of cider. The only holiday that could top Halloween for Hermione was Christmas and she was already making plans for the Rose. "No, I can't start thinking about Christmas," Hermione scolded herself. She always had a particularly bad habit of rushing through the year and she was determined to stop and enjoy every celebration this year. The start of her new life came just as she was turning 30. She was determined to make her 30th year, the best one yet. Her grandfather and Ginny got together to plan a surprise birthday for her and it was more than Hermione could ask for, her girlfriend even made a surprise appearance for her special day. After Laura's trip during summer, their relationship had remained stable. They FaceTimed regularly and Laura made the occasional trip from the city to come out for a visit. Laura was currently out of the country for work and Hermione was feeling an empty spot from the lack of FaceTime. Spending time dwelling on her relationship was not how Hermione wanted to spend this crisp fall evening. She walked over to the window in the living room and cracked it, letting in the fall breeze. She inhaled deeply, clearing her head and resetting herself.
Hermione stood looking out the window and appreciated how the trees were all changing into their autumnal uniform. Just then, Hermione had noticed a familiar being that she had only glimpsed once. The short curly headed book lover was walking down the street opposite the bookstore with another lady. She was taller with blonde hair and looked very intimidating. "I guess she must live around here. Nobody comes to this little city for anything else and the shops are all closed for the evening." Hermione's head was swirling with this new information or really lack of information but then she remembered, the books were due in the box tomorrow. It was curious that she was walking down the street tonight when she was meant to be picking up her books the next evening. She shook her mind clear and headed away from the window when the women were out of sight. Walking into the spare bedroom that Hermione was using as her self proclaimed book room, she saw the piles of favorite books she received from her writing companion. She was up to a total of 20 books and had honestly loved every single one of them. The writer had also not returned any of Hermione's favorite books either. "I wonder if she's ever going to want these back." Hermione thought to herself, sitting down at her desk and pulling out all of the letters. Running her finger down the spines of all of the books she had received the past few months, the pile had really puzzled Hermione. She was desperate to know anything and everything about this woman but their letters remained superficial, cordial and about the books being sent. She still had yet to learn the woman's name. The only clues Hermione was given about this woman was through the books she received and all the notes the writer had crafted in the margins of the books.
From the margins she had come to find out that the person was born in the winter, she loved the color black and she had an affinity for stories with a female protagonist. She also loved period pieces and stories that seemed as if all hope would be lost forever. There was not much information at all to go on, especially throwing in the fact that every round of books contained a children's story. Hermione had never been both perplexed and intrigued by one person in her entire 30 years of life.
Hermione was determined to get to know this person if it took the entire year. She wasn't going to give up. The pile of five books to be set in the box were picked and ready to go. This month she was giving The Once and Future King, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Beloved, Carrie and The Tell-Tale Heart. Normally, Hermione wouldn't include so many horror books but 'tis the season and she couldn't pass up the opportunity. Reaching into the desk drawer, she pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment which she had acquired from a quick Google search locating a store that still sold parchment. Instead of ordering it online, Hermione drove the 90 minutes round trip to retrieve the parchment, a couple of quills and an inkwell. She was all into this correspondence and wanted to have the most authentic experience as possible down to her personalized HG wax seal.
Pouring a small amount ink into her well, she dipped the quill and started to write:
Dearest peculiar requester,
Another month has flown by and your books just keep leaving me more and more perplexed. I have this want or maybe need to understand you better and get to know you on a deeper level than quill to parchment. I know that's not how this is supposed to work but I've always had a curious mind and something about your favorite books just brings out the Alice side of me. I want to go through the looking glass and see everything you have to offer.
With the autumnal holiday approaching, I included some of my favorite spooky reads for you to enjoy. I hope you aren't put off by horror though something tells me you won't be. You have yet to make one adverse remark about any of my books.
I feel a connection to you through these pieces of parchment and it's hard to explain. I won't try to get any information out of you that you aren't ready to share but remaining consistent with myself, I at least wanted to provide you with my name. Hi, I'm Hermione, it's nice to meet you.
I wanted to ask you if in the future you'd like to meet in person sometime so I can't return your books to you. I have quite a collection developing and while I'd love to keep them forever, from the extensive notes you've placed in the margins, I feel you'd be amiss without them for too long. If you don't want to meet, that is also fine and I can place them back in the drop box.
Until next month,
Hermione
After dotting the final i, Hermione nodded and placed the quill into the inkwell. She folded the parchment in three and started to heat her wax cubes over a small flame then poured the melted wax onto the parchment and stamped it with her seal. "Perfect," Hermione announced before getting up and placing her books and letter into a cloth bag for her companion. Turning out the lights, she retrieved her cider, turned off the movie and retired to her bedroom where she read until she fell asleep.
—
"I can't believe you've been here for six months and you are finally getting round to coming over for dinner. Mum has been hounding me forever and I swear, if I had to tell you one more time that you couldn't make it then she would've disowned me immediately." Ginny rolled her eyes so hard that they practically rolled out of her head. The redhead had decided to pick Hermione up at the bookstore and walk the three blocks to the Weasley family abode. To describe it as a house wouldn't do it justice, it was three stories tall with an added two story guest house and a converted barn.
"It's not like they haven't seen me. They came into the shop and they were at my birthday." Hermione reminded her escort.
"Ahh, but mum says it's different to host you for tea. Mum says that's the proper way to welcome someone back to the neighborhood. It's a wonder how you managed to escape her advances all these months. Harry and I were talking about how impressive that actually was on your part."
Hermione hadn't been avoiding the Weasley house intentionally, though she wasn't particularly fond of seeing Ron. At her birthday, since Laura was there, Ron stayed a healthy distance away from her so there wasn't any awkward conversation between the two of them. Without her girlfriend, Hermione was afraid of what tonight might bring. "I wasn't avoiding this on purpose," Hermione started to defend herself but Ginny cut her off. Her parents knew she was busy trying to learn about the business and get settled. It was nothing to worry about. "Any chance your brother won't be there tonight?" Hermione asked, giving her friend a sneaky smile.
"Which brother?" Ginny smirked, motioning for Hermione to head up the walkway to the front door first. "No, unfortunately for everyone, Ron's home again. I swear, he moves out and moves back in more than anyone I've ever known. He's been staying in the guest house so hopefully he won't be in just yet."
"Yes, well…" Hermione nodded to the door then turned back to look at her friend, "I suppose we should get in there." She raised her hand to knock but the door flew open and on the other side stood a short, rounded woman with rosey cheeks and the patented red hair. The elder woman was wearing a flowery green dress and a white apron. She ushered them inside with a quick, "well come on in," and the girls were inside the house in the whirlwind of Weasley activity. "Thanks for having me over, Mrs. Weasley. It's been awhile since I've had a proper sit down meal and that smells delicious." Hermione had always adopted the attitude when visiting someone's house to always be polite and never a burden.
"It's no problem at all, dear. Now let me take your coats and come on through to the dining room. We're just about ready for tea, I hope you are hungry. Ginny mentioned you love a good roast dinner so I couldn't help myself." Mrs. Weasley smiled up at Hermione.
"You didn't have to go through all that trouble for me, honestly. I would've eaten anything. I'm not picky." Hermione blushed at the thought of someone else's mother going through all the trouble to cook a meal for someone other than her immediate family.
"Nonsense. Any friend of Ginny's is a member of the family." Mrs. Weasley patted her on the back, ushering them through to the dining room. Ginny and Hermione walked over towards the back door while the red headed matron excused herself back into the kitchen.
Ginny laughed a little and looked at Hermione, "seriously she loves you more than anyone." Hermione rolled her eyes, "well she definitely loves you more than Ron."
Hermione laughed out loud at her friend but immediately controlled her laughter to remain at a polite volume, "so where are you staying these days?" Ginny pointed to the refurbished barn. "It looks lovely. Show me around later?" Ginny nodded in confirmation. "So is Harry staying with you?"
"No," Ginny shook her head, "it's a bit ridiculous really. We've been together for four years but mum won't let him move in or me move out until we are married. Harry better hurry up and stop sitting on this and ask me already. I'm 27 for fuck sake."
Hermione was about to respond when Mrs. Weasley came out of the kitchen carrying some of the dinner followed by Mr. Weasley and Ron. Hermione internally groaned at the sight of the man who had a smile plastered across his face. Ginny elbowed her when she saw the smile dissolve from her friend's face. The brunette snapped out of it and put her polite smile back into place. "Do you need any help?" Hermione called out before walking over and grabbing the heavy looking serving dish from Mrs. Weasley and depositing it onto the table. After a quick no, they all sat and began eating.
"How's everything at the English Rose, Hermione?" Mr. Weasley asked not to let a second of silence pass during the meal.
After finishing the bite of roast that was had just taken, she responded, "it's lovely. The patrons are amazing, the books are of course top of my list but my favorite part has been all the extra time I've had with my grandfather." She went to take another bite before adding, "just don't tell the books that."
Mr. Weasley nodded, "your secret is safe with us, dear."
The conversation around the dinner table was cordial enough excluding the failed attempts from Ron to engage Hermione in a separate conversation. Ginny even made the move to boldly ask how Laura was doing to drive the point home to Rom but he still didn't seem to get the hint. After dinner was over, Hermione and Ginny volunteered to do the dishes while Mrs. Weasley cleaned the dining room. Ron came into the kitchen and leaned against the counter next to Hermione while she was washing the dishes, "so Hermione, how are you?"
"She covered that already, Ronald. If you were paying attention, she's fine, the shop is fine, the books are fine, her grandfather is fine and her girlfriend is fine." Ginny said, throwing the drying rag into the empty sink before rolling her eyes and leaving the room. Hermione chased after her with desperate eyes before turning back and smiling awkwardly at Ron before picking up another dish to wash. Ron walked over and picked up the drying rag in a silent offer to help Hermione. "So, do you miss the city?"
"Yes and no," Hermione answered honestly. She did miss living with her girlfriend but she did not miss her old job or the hustle and bustle of the city. "I miss some aspects of it but living in a small town has always been a dream of mine. I'm not a big city type of person, never have been."
"I remember." Ron smiled fondly, "I remember when you would come for the summer you used to go on and on about how much you hated London." He laughed a little, placing the few dishes into the cupboard before continuing, "still it must be hard being away from your girlfriend. How are things going between you two?"
Hermione gave Ron a side glance. He was getting bolder with his line of questioning but figured she'd humor him for a while just to see where this was going, "it's been hard but we are making it work. She's out of the country right now for work so we haven't been able to chat much. I miss her terribly when I can't speak with her." Okay that last sentence wasn't entirely true but she was laying it on thick to play the role of dutiful girlfriend.
"Long distance relationships can be really stressful…"
"Where exactly are you going with this?" Hermione asked, placing the dish down a little harder than she normally would, turning to stare at Ron with her eyebrows raised.
"I was just going to say, if anything changes in your current situation, then I'd love to take you out sometime." Ron confessed, his cheeks turning pink.
"I don't think that's going to happen, Ron." Hermione replied gently, picking up the next dish that needed to be washed.
"You must really be in love. That's nice."
"Not entirely." Hermione smirked, putting the last dish down in the rack, and walking towards the door, "I'm just really fucking gay."
Hermione left Ron in the kitchen staring at her with a gobsmacked expression on his face. She saw Ginny in the living room and went to tell her about the conversation in the kitchen. "Serves him right. He never could get a bloody hint." Ginny rolled her eyes and pulled Hermione away with her and out the door to give her the grand tour of her barn home.
—
Before Hermione knew it, October was coming to an end and Halloween was only five days away. Her excitement of the holiday and festivities was growing by the day. The other businesses around town were finally starting to decorate their storefronts. She was sitting in window chairs with her grandfather enjoying the warmth of the sun shining onto them. "I love this weather, papa." Hermione closed her eyes and let her face absorb the sun filtering onto her through the window.
"How do you think I came up with the name sunshine?" Her grandfather smiled at her and returned his gaze outside. "Look over there," he pointed to a salon across the street, "they are going for the scary route."
"Oh my," Hermione peaked out of the window. "That is rather scary. I hope it doesn't scare the children too badly. Look at that thing," Hermione was pointing at the decapitated corpse. "That thing could give anyone nightmares." Hermione shook her head, "who owns that salon?"
"I'm not sure. Never been inside of it," her grandfather confessed. "I think new owners overtook the place just a year or so ago. It was a clothing store beforehand. Now it's owned by a mother and daughter but I've never bothered to introduce myself." Henry looked almost ashamed with that confession. "After your grandmother died, I wasn't really in the proper mental place to meet new people." Hermione reached out and grabbed her grandfather's hand. "Perhaps, we could go over and introduce ourselves one day soon."
"That might be a good idea." Hermione nodded. "You never know when we might need a favor. It's always a good idea to be friendly with the neighbors," she said looking out the window seeing the pink haired girl struggling to put the corpse in what appeared to be a menacing position. "Plus, they could be fun." Hermione laughed watching her neighbor struggling with the prop, dropping it, kicking it across the yard then flicking it off as she stormed back into the salon.
After Hermione's grandfather left for the day, Hermione closed up the shop and went downstairs to sort through all the new arrivals and donated books that had recently come into the shop. This was by far Hermione's favorite part of the job. Sure she loved the patrons but she adored the alone time she got to spend with the books during what she titled the 'sorting'. During these sortings, Hermione always had a separate pile for books that came in that she wanted to read or that she set aside for her letter companion. She was always keeping her eye out for something that she thought would peak the other's interest. She had been downstairs for a few hours sorting and reading of course when her stomach started to grumble. At that moment Crooks made his presence known, loudly clambering down the stairs announcing it was in fact his feeding time. "I agree. I'm quite hungry as well. Shall we go up and see what's for dinner?" Hermione leaned down and scratched behind his ears as he hugged up against her lower legs purring loudly. "Well, come on then."
As Hermione and Crooks were ascending the second set of stairs up to her apartment, a loud thud and bang was heard from outside the door. It must be the return letter. It took everything in Hermione's being not to run to the door to catch a true glimpse of this person. She wanted nothing more than to throw the door open and invite the woman in for dinner. She had an endless amount of questions swirling through her brain. Somehow she managed to reel herself in and wait. She took Crooks upstairs and walked slowly, feeding him a healthy portion of his cat pellets and gave him a few treats for being the good boy that he always was. "That took all of three minutes, surely she's gone by now." Hermione put her phone in the table after checking the time, "fuck it. If she's lingering then a meeting was meant to be." She ran down the stairs and opened the front door to be slightly disappointed when there was nobody on the other side. "Oh," a disappointed sigh came from the brunette's lips as she made her way over to the drop box. There was indeed a bag in the drop box but it looked different than the rest. When she picked it up, the first thing she noticed was that it wasn't as heavy as all of her previous packages. Then she noticed how oddly shaped it was. Hermione's curiosity hit an all time high as she hurried to close the box, re enter the shop, lock the front door and run upstairs. Her supper was temporarily forgotten as she made her way to her bedroom and sat down cross legged on her bed.
Hermione opened the bag and pulled out her customary letter which sent butterflies straight through her stomach which she couldn't explain. There was no sensible reason for this. When she reached back into the bag there was only one book wrapped in paper which Hermione assumed it was to conceal its identity and a very old and ornate looking rectangular box. As always, she started by opening the parchment.
Dear Hermione,
That is quite a lovely and unique name. Based on your letter writing, I'd say that the name Hermione suits you very well. As always, you provided me with excellent tomes this month and you are very astute, I love horror. Nothing has ever really scared me. I challenge you to find something that you think would do the trick. I would return that favor but you might never recover. I'm told I can be quite scary when prompted.
Our little game has been going on for a few months now and I have loved every single one of your books. I am beginning to think that you are starting to miss the texts you sent to me. I do miss my books that I sent to you however I'm glad you are enjoying the notes that I made in the margins. Some of them are older notes i made forever ago and some of them were brand new that I put in there just for you. Have you found my hints? I'm in no rush to get my books back but I do thank you for asking. I suppose I could only ask the same of you. Do you wish for your books to be returned soon?
With the matter of meeting, I must say I was surprised you wanted to meet in person. It just never came up with your grandfather and I preferred to keep my anonymity. I admit, I am very intrigued to meet you. Your letters and book selection has me making many mental scenarios of what you will be like in real life.
The book I gave you this time is Alice Through The Looking Glass. "In the garden of memory, in the palace of dreams… that is where you and I shall meet." I'm sure you are familiar with the quote. My sister is holding her annual Bonfire Night masquerade ball. I would like you to come so I can meet you formally. I have included an invitation, it is in the box with a mask. This mask reminded me of Alice and of you. If you'd like to come, I'll be dressed inspired by the red queen. Meet me in my sister's gardens at 9pm and I shall tell you my name. If you don't come, we can continue to correspond the old fashioned way though something tells me your curiosity won't keep you away.
Step through the looking glass, Hermione. I'll be waiting on the other side.
Until then,
The Red Queen
Hermione folded the parchment and unwrapped the well worn copy of Alice Through The LookingGlass. Flipping quickly through the pages, she found marks and notes in all of the margins and smiled at the familiarity of this occurrence. She then put the rectangular box in her lap. Opening the latch on the lid, she was greeted by the invitation. Bonfire night was a night she usually spent with her girlfriend in the city watching fireworks. When she pulled back the satin covering the ornate mask, she knew she wouldn't be spending bonfire night with Laura. The mask was indeed Alice inspired. She pulled out an ornate light blue Venetian mask. It had silver, gold and blue filigree around the mask and eyes which had a shimmery finish. The outline of the mask was adorned with teal and silver lace. On the right side of the mask was a blue ribbon centered with a white Rose and a blue feather. There was a black satin tie to hold the mask to her face. Hermione carefully put the mask back in the box, afraid that she would break it if she looked at it for too long.
She pulled out her phone and texted Ginny saying she needed a shopping buddy since apparently she needed a ball gown.
Hermione indeed was going through the looking glass this BonFire night and there was nothing that would stop her from meeting this mysterious woman.