Chapter 11: Mr. and Mrs. Granger
Ron stumbled into the kitchen at nearly two in the afternoon the next day still in the clothes he had worn to the hospital the night before, hair wild and eyes blood shot from drinking, to find Harry sitting at the table, a cup of hot tea in hand.
The bespectacled man looked up over his glass at his friend, his brows arched with amusement. "Rough night?"
"Shut up, Harry." Ron growled while pouring himself a cup of tea, adding four heaping spoonfuls of sugar before joining him at the table.
"So you're an uncle?" Ron nodded as he blew on the tea. "Aurelia. Is she as beautiful as her mother?"
"More." Ron took a quick sip before he set his drink down. "She has Fleur's skin and nose, Bill's chin and the Weasley hair. She'll be a real beauty someday."
Harry took another generous sip from his tea. "You weren't in bed when I got home this morning."
"All the Weasley men sat around and got pissed last night. You would have been invited but you seemed a bit preoccupied. And while we're on the subject," Ron took a sip of tea for dramatic affect. "Dumbledore requested I tell you that while you may no longer be a student others still are and are required to abide by the rules."
Harry's eyes widened in worry. "Ginny's not in trouble, is she?"
"You weren't caught by any teachers or prefects, were you?"
"No."
"Then don't worry about it. I don't think Dumbledore will rat you out."
Ron's stomach gave a loud, hungry growl then, stopping the conversation long enough for Ron to go about setting meat in a skillet to fry. Harry watched him silently, enjoying the strong flavor of his tea. When Ron retook his seat at the table Harry waited for him to take a sip of his tea and set it back down before asking.
"What did Dumbledore have to say?"
"Nothing that I haven't heard before. Did you know that he was pulling strings in the Ministry as well, trying to keep open Hermione's case?"
"I thought he might have been."
"Did he say anything else?"
"No. He just questioned me about what I've tried so far. I told him I had tried everything magically possible. He said that he would focus more of his time on trying to find her now that things were more peaceful."
"That's it?"
"He said he thought I could do it. That I would be able to find a way."
"Then you probably can. Look Ron," Harry scooted closer to the table, "about what I said yesterday..."
"Don't worry about it. You were right. I've been a git. I've been so consumed with finding her. It's the same old story all over again. I guess it's true what they say. I'm not the most clever of the Weasleys. You have to beat me over the head a few times before I get it."
"Ron, there's something I don't understand. How were you able to stay strong all this time? Why did you never waver in your belief that she was alive."
"You're going to laugh at me."
"Only if you say something incredibly stupid."
Ron snorted. "It's because of something Rane said."
"Rane Voitekh?"
Ron nodded. "Sixth year, you know how I started to develop a little crush for her?" Harry nodded. "And you remember when she took my up to the boy's dormitory and everyone thought we had been snogging or what ever?"
"Yeah, of course."
"She was reading my palm. I don't think I ever told you, but she's gypsy Harry, a real Gypsy, and she told me that I would meet my one when I was really young and that we would have a really hard time being together, that there would be times that I would want to give up, but that I mustn't, because in the end we would be together and more happy then I could even imagine. She said she'd never been wrong, Harry, and I couldn't believe she'd be wrong about this."
Ron got up from the table and moved to the skillet, turning the meat over to brown the other side.
"Have you heard from Rane lately?"
"Yeah, I got an owl just the other week. There still looking for her over there. Her and Ester are using crystal balls and tea leaves and tarot cards. The results are always inconclusive though."
"So that leaves us on our own."
"Us?" Ron turned to look at him.
"You didn't think you'd be looking alone did you?"
"Guess not." Ron turned back to the skillet, summoned a plate from the cabinet and emptied the skillet of his meal. "Where do we go from here?"
"We've done everything by the book. There is nothing in the magical world left to try."
"But there has to be… wait." Ron set his plate down. "What did you say?"
"I said there is nothing in the magical world left to try."
"Not in the magical world," he turned his wide eyes on Harry. "What about the Muggle world."
"The Muggle world?"
"Yeah, Muggles get lost, don't they? Don't the please men have ways to find them?"
"The Police, Ron."
"Fine. The Police men. Don't they have a way to find missing Muggles. What if she's not lost in the magical world? What if she's lost in the Muggle world? Wouldn't that explain why we can't find her?"
"I don't know. I suppose it's worth a try."
"It's worth more then a try, Harry. This might be the answer."
"You're right. I definitely think we should go through with this. But if we do," Harry watched the dark liquid swirl around the rim of his cup as he gently tipped it, there's something that we have to do. And I don't think you're going to like it."
"What's that?"
"We have to go talk to Hermione's parents."
Ron pushed his plate away as if the smell of the fresh cooked meat nauseated him. "No. I won't."
"Ron…"
"Harry, they abandoned Hermione. They haven't spoken with her since she refused to go with them."
"Well I'm sure they feel just as abandoned as she did."
"Don't go siding with them."
"I'm not siding with anyone. I just want you to understand what they must have been going through. Can't you appreciate what it must have been like for them? First they find out that their daughter is different from them, so different in fact that she would have to go away to school and leave them. Do you think they realized when she left that they were letting their daughter start a whole new life that would always be separate from them? Hermione hadn't spent any real time with them since she was eleven, she barely saw them after thirteen because she was always with us. And all that time she kept them completely in the dark about what was happening in our world because not only did she not want to frighten them but she was scared that they would try and pull her away from this world. What do you think was going through their minds when she told them what was going on here? I can tell you what I think. I imagine that they realized for perhaps the first time that they no longer knew their daughter. That she grew up without them even realizing it. They just wanted to protect her, Ron. I imagine they feel like your mum and dad felt when Percy choose the Ministry over them."
Harry could see the softening in Ron's expression. "That might be, but Mum and Dad never gave up on Percy. Her parents haven't written her a single letter since the disagreement."
"Look at the source. Hermione had to have inherited her stubbornness from somewhere. I'm guessing it was probably them." Harry banished the remaining tea in his cup, it having gone cold long ago. "I know you know more about this situation then I do. I'm sure you and Hermione talked about it. But no matter what was going on between her and her parents they deserve to know their daughter is missing. And they deserve to know that she is a hero. No one has been able to tell them that because no one has been able to get a hold of them." Harry gazed at his friend skeptically. His friends face was turned to the side and his face was flushed a rosy pink. "And you know why, don't you?"
It doesn't mater what I know. It won't change anything."
"Ron. What aren't you telling me? Where are Hermione's parents?"
"That is between me and Hermione."
"Hermione told me her parents were in Scotland staying with her aunt. We found the house but there was no trace of them there. Why is that Ron?" Harry asked even though he was almost certain he knew the answer.
"Even though Hermione was estranged with her parents she was worried about them. What if Death Eaters found them at her aunt's house? She couldn't protect them."
"Who's the secret keeper?"
"I am."
"Do you want me to come with you when you tell them?"
"Yeah," Ron rose to his feet. "Let me just go clean up and we can do it now. This afternoon."
"You're not going to back out?"
"No."
"You're doing the right thing you know." Harry said to his retreating back.
"Yeah," He stopped in the doorway. "Then why does it feel like I'm betraying Hermione."
"Listen," Harry rose to his feet and took the several steps that separated them. "there are other reasons why we need to go and see them. Sometimes Muggle parents take precautions in case their children go missing."
"What kind of precautions?"
"Umm…they might have copies of her finger prints or dental records. They have to have those." Harry said excitedly. "They're dentists, for Merlin's sake."
"So they can help us?"
"Maybe." He shrugged. "We won't be certain until we go and talk to them. Hurry up and get ready. We have to make a stop by the Ministry before we go and see them."
"Why?"
"Because it's Ministry protocol to present the wand of a fallen witch or wizard to his or her immediate family. And despite what you or I might feel, that is still her parents."
Ron growled with frustration. "Sometimes I really hate the Ministry."
Half an hour later Ron and Harry appeared on a cragged plane outside the small village of Kylachen on the remote island of Skye in northern Scotland. "So where are we headed exactly?" Harry asked as he pulled his foot out of deep sinkhole that left his trousers wet up to the knee in bog water. "Better yet, where are we?"
"Kylachen. Scotland."
Ron had already cast a drying spell at Harry's damp leg and his own two feet and was on his way toward the little town, climbing the rock outcroppings with ease. Taking head not to step in another gap in the heather, Harry hurried after Ron, climbing the rock easier then Ron had.
They came over the crest of a short hill and began the descent toward a small beach complete with boatshed, beneath the ruins of an ancient castle. He turned left and followed the path back up through the heather and over another rock cropping toward the small village. The dirt trodden path turned into sand as they neared the rode. As soon as he was free of the soft ground Ron set of at clip pace, Harry keeping steady at his side.
"You seem to know where you're going."
"I've been here before." Ron said without missing a step. "Hermione and I had to come here in order to perform the charm." The two sidestepped a car that was turning left down the drive to a little house over looking the water. "The house is just up this way." Ron nodded his head to the left, indication a road that traveled further up the mount. After a three minute walk the two stopped in front of a cute little house nestled into the hillside. Ron turned and looked at the house with contemplative eyes.
"Are you ready for this?" Harry asked.
"No." Ron shook his head and stepped forward hand lifted. He wrapped smartly on the door before taking a step back.
"Just a moment." They heard someone call inside moments before the handle turned and the door opened. "Hel…low." A tall woman with dark sleek hair opened the door. "Can I help you?" Her eyes went past them to check the drive and returned with confusion when she saw the two strangers had come without a car.
"Yes," Harry stepped forward when Ron made no move to speak with the woman. "We're here to speak with the Drs. Grangers."
The woman's eyes instantly narrowed on them. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid…"
"Ma'am," Ron placed his large palm against the door and held it open when she tried to close it on them. "My name is Ron Weasley, and this is Harry Potter. We're friends of Hermione's from school."
"Really? Friends of Hermione's? I wish I could believe that, but under the circumstances…I was given explicit instructions not to let anyone I don't know cross the doorsill. So if you'll excuse me."
"Ma'am," Ron put his hand up once again to stop the closing door. "If we wished to harm you or Hermione's parents we would have simply burst into the house. We simply wish to speak with the Grangers. It's very important that we do."
"Ronald?" Through the small gap Ron had been able to keep in the door, he could see the figure of a man walking down the hall toward the door. "Ronald Weasley?" The man's fingers appeared around the side of the door and pulled back revealing the warm, welcoming face of Mr. Granger. "Ron, Harry." He said in a mixture of shock and delight. "How wonderful to see you two again. Netty, step aside and let them pass."
"But Melvin," she said through clenched teeth, Jane said not to let anyone in."
"Netty, I've had enough of what Jane said. I miss my daughter." Mr. Granger gently, but firmly, moved his sister-in-law to the side so that he could take her place and offer his two visitors his hand. "Ron." He shook the redhead's hand. "Harry. I'm thrilled to see you." He released Harry's hand and stepped aside so the two boys could come inside. "What brings you two to Skye."
"Mr. Granger." Ron said evenly, turning to face the older man head on. "Is your wife at home?"
The welcoming smile dissolved from the dentists face. "Yes. She's out back, working in the garden. Why is something wrong?" He looked awkwardly between the two boys and behind them as if noticing for the first time that his daughter was absent from their company. "Is something wrong with Hermione?"
"Please sir," Harry cut off Ron, using his most calming and placating of voices. "It's very important that Ron and I speak with you and your wife."
"Netty," Mr. Granger's eyes never left the two boys, "Would you mind making tea while I go locate Jane?"
"Not at all, Melvin."
Mr. Granger directed the two boys into the small, formal sitting room, just this side of the front door and offered them a seat before he went in search of his wife. As he hurried down the short hall to the back of the house his mind was abuzz with all the different scenarios of why his daughters two best friends were at their doorstep, but there was one thing he knew for certain. There was definitely something wrong with Hermione.
Melvin and Jane Granger stared at the boys with twin eyes of horror and disbelief. "This can't be right." Jane rose aggressively to her feet. "This just can't be right."
"Mrs. Granger. You had to have known with a war being fought that there was a chance something like this would happen." Harry said reasonably.
"But Hermione is too sensible to get mixed up in actual fighting. She never engaged in such behavior as a child." The two friends glanced at each other, thinking similar thoughts. No, Hermione would not willingly engage in a violent act, but when she was pushed to far or the ones she loved were threatened; she could fight like the best of them. She had proven herself capable more then once.
"Jane, please." Mr. Granger put his hand on his wife's arm and pulled her back down to the seat they were sharing. "You said she's been missing for a year? Correct?" The two boys nodded in the affirmative. "Then why is it we've only now been informed of this."
"Because sir," Harry answered, taking pity on his friend, "up until this afternoon, the Ministry of Magic was unable to locate you."
"We've been here all this time. We haven't moved about."
"I know, sir. It's all very complicated. It would take far too much time to explain…"
"And that's not what's important right now." Ron cut his friend off. "Harry and I are here because the Ministry has declared Hermione legally dead, however, we have reason to believe that this isn't the case and there might be another way to find her. You see," he scooted forward to the edge of his seat. "The Ministry and I have exhausted all magical means of locating her. It can't be done. And Harry and I were talking and we thought perhaps the reason why Hermione can't be located magically is because she's not living in the magical world, but the Muggle one."
Mr. Granger's brow furrowed in confusion. "I'm afraid, I don't follow."
"Mr. and Mrs. Granger, do you have anything that Ron and I might use to help locate and identify Hermione. Copies of her finger prints or her dental work or blood type. A distinguishable birth mark?"
Ron turned his face a way to hide the blush he knew must be creeping up his face. Harry needn't have asked about a distinguishable birth mark. He knew every inch of Hermione's body and there wasn't one to be found.
"No," Mrs. Granger shook her head. "We don't have a copy of her finger prints. We always meant to get it done, but we never managed to get around to it." Her face fell in the knowledge that she had failed her daughter in this one matter.
"What about her dental records?" Harry asked sympathetically, though persistently.
"No good." Mr. Granger sunk back in his seat. "After Hermione took her dental work into her own hands fourth year we never did any work again. The only images we have of her teeth on record are from before she had the front two shrunk. A procedure like that had to have altered the alignment and the spacing of all her teeth. Not to mention the way she would talk and eat."
"Why does it matter that it might have altered the way she talked and ate?" Ron asked with annoyance, clearly not understanding the relevance of her mouth movement to the information they needed.
"Because of the way the movement and the grinding would wear on her teeth. She won't have the same wear marks she would have had before her front teeth were reduced. Not to mention the fact that the front teeth are completely different. There would be no way to match her now. I'm sorry boys." Mr. Granger shook his head feeling lost, confused and vulnerable. "I don't know how we can help you."
"Melvin," Jane Granger put her hand on her husbands arm. "We're going back to London. There's so much more we can do from there. I can't sit here and do nothing while knowing out baby is out there somewhere, lost, alone and scared." She clutched painfully at her husbands arm. "If we go back to London we can start are own search. Put ads in the news papers, visit hospitals, contact the proper authorities. "
"Jane." Mr. Granger said sadly. "I don't think we should. It's not safe there. We can do all those things just as well from here where it's safe."
"Actually, Mr. Granger," Harry felt fit to correct them "the war is over, as Ron and I have just explained. A good portion of the Death Eaters are behind bars and those who aren't are hiding in fear. You and Mrs. Granger should be perfectly safe in London. Actually, I think it might be a good idea for the two of you to return. There are far more resources there then you could ever dream of finding here. And if you're still concerned about security," Harry continued when he saw the uncertainty in the older man's eyes, "I can have some one from the Ministry sent over to your home to raise a few wards and act as guard. I can think of two people who would be more then willing to take that detail."
Harry grinned slightly when the image of Remus Lupin and the former Nympadora Tonks, now Nymphadora Lupin, came into mind. He should really call on them when he and Ron returned to London. He feared he saw a lot less of them now that he was finished with school and the war was over. They just didn't seem to inhabit the same places anymore.
Refocusing on the conversation going on around him, Harry turned to look at Ron who was talking at the moment and saw that the hard expression that had been on his face since they had made the decision to come to Scotland had melted into a softer, more comforting look. Ron had spent so much time being angry at the Grangers on Hermione's account that it had taken seeing them in person, and the shock and grief her parents felt at his and Harry's news to realize that they were hurt too, and were still hurting. He could tell by the look of insane grief in Mrs. Granger's eyes that they loved their daughter very much. He couldn't be angry anymore.
"If you need any help returning to London," he was saying, "please feel free to contact Harry or myself. Or better yet, my father. He works at the Ministry and is fascinated by Muggles.
"Thank you Ronald; Harry, for coming here today." He reached across the table and first shook the hand of the red haired boy and then the blacked. "I'm glad my Moppet could make friends with two fine young gentleman like you." His eyes caught with Ron's and in that moment that young man knew. Somehow Mr. Granger seemed to know that there had been something more between Ron and his daughter.
The group of four rose to their feet and made their way toward the front door. "Melvin and I will make sure to keep you informed on everything from our front." Mrs. Granger said as her husband opened the door for the two boys. "And thank you for your offer. We'll contact you as soon as we know what our plans are." She stopped to blink back tears. Suddenly, without any warning, Mrs. Granger through herself forward and wrapped her arms around the necks of the two best friends. "We have to find her." She sobbed, her arms tightening around their necks. "I never really knew her. I never got the chance to know my own daughter." Her fingers dug into the collar of Ron's and Harry's shirt when her husband tried to pry her loose of the uncomfortable boys. "What have I done, Melvin?" her fingers loosened allowing the two boys to pry gently free. "She's gone Melvin. She's gone." She turned and tucked her face into her husbands shoulder. "She's gone." She kept murmuring while Mr. Granger ran a soothing hand over her back, shushing her softly.
"It's all right. We'll find her."
"We should have written her Melvin. I should have relented when you asked me to. Why am I so stubborn?"
"Jane!" Mr. Granger said firmly when his wife's hysteria seemed to gain momentum. "Stop it. This is no time to loose yourself. You can let go when we find her, but not a moment before."
"But…"
"Jane."
Reluctantly the curly haired woman nodded. "You're right." She pulled away from her husband and wiped gingerly at her eyes as she turned back to her visitors, regaining her composure quickly. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that."
"It's all right." Ron assured her, placing his large hand gently on her arm. "I would have been more disturbed if I hadn't."
"Mr. and Mrs. Granger," Harry stepped forward. "I have one last thing for you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a long thin box. He held it in his hand a moment before extending it to his best friends parents. "On behalf of the Ministry of Magic I would like to offer you your daughter's wand as well as a certificate honoring her with the Order of Merlin, First class for her work and sacrifice in the effort to protect both the Wizarding world and the Muggle world." Mrs. Granger's delicate, trebling fingers circled around the slender box. "And as her friend I'm asking you to hold on to this and protect it until it can be returned to her. For I am convinced someday it will."
"Thank you, Harry." She clutched the box to her breast as soon as Harry had released it. "Now that communication has been reopened, please feel free to stop by and see us." She offered the boys her quivering hand. "You're always welcome in our home."
"Like wise." Ron returned when he took her hand.
Giving Harry a nod, the two boys turned, preparing to leave.
"Would you like to stay for diner?" Mr. Granger offered when he stepped up to the door.
"No, thank you." Ron declined. "I have some work to do." he said meaningfully.
