Nights turn into daydreams
On the same street
Where you left me, yeah
Same show
Stuck on repeat
Are you lonely?
Think you might be
"PSYCHO" – DREAMDNVR & Boy In Space
Not a week later saw James Potter, settled high on the hip of his honourary aunt, offering a rare counterpoint in weight and balance to offset the two overstuffed bags of groceries she normally toted on such mornings.
James babbled quite happily throughout their trip to the various grocery stores, and more than once, Hermione had had to gently, and surreptitiously, push floating boxes of biscuits and desirable snacks back to their places on the shelf after the mischievous toddler had flung his hands, and his budding magic, outward to summon what was on offer. After the third such incident, thankfully, at the second store they'd entered, she'd opened one of the tins she'd already bought from a store that offered different brands that she wouldn't have been accused of stealing to the child, hoping it would distract him.
Little James gratefully accepted the offering, though it did leave a mess of slobbery crumbs all over his jumper.
This wasn't her first day with the child. That had been Monday, the day before, and thankfully she'd managed to switch shifts with another witch who had done the rounds while Hermione occupied herself, and James, in the Departmental office, fulfilling requisitions, filing requests, and completing a list of other bothersome minutiae.
She was beginning to see the difficulty in entertaining the child throughout such a boring routine. She'd spelled a comforter to lay spread on the floor in her corner and had spelled a magical barrier around it. Ginny and Harry had provided her with a number of the tot's favourite toys, but with the appeal of new surroundings and new people, the sociable young man had instead occupied himself babbling excitedly at anyone who looked like they might give him attention.
For a boy nearing three, his vocabulary was rather sparse, though Hermione didn't think herself a fair judge of that. She was simply grateful that the other witches in the office had not only taken it in stride, but had decided the young Potter was nothing but the tiniest of darlings, and had fawned over him accordingly.
She'd not seen fit to tell them who the child's father was, only mentioning he was a friend, else they may have spoiled him past the point that anyone would find acceptable.
The evening before had been... a bit rough. She was willing to admit to herself. Her hair certainly was in a far worse state than normal, and she'd almost forgotten to feed Crookshanks. In the end, both the cat and the baby were fed and she herself went without. Even after waking up at the ungodly hour of five o'clock, she'd not remembered to take care of her own needs and resolved to do better the next morning instead of sitting and staring at the late night to early morning children's programming on her telly like a zombie, James happily snacking on dry cereal out of a plastic bag on her lap.
Changing him was actually easier than expected. Though she found it somewhat disagreeable, she wasn't entirely unused to such things. She'd done worse for the residents on occasion, and they were grown adults, far more difficult to maneuver. She also reckoned that there was a lot one could say about the beauty of magic, and vanishing charms, and a well-placed Tergio.
Not to mention a freshening charm here or there. Her nose wrinkled in remembrance.
Yet, on this morning, she and James were out to take on a new challenge together. Depending on how her young charge comported himself, she hoped she'd get to see more of him during the year, and hoped she could offer the boy's parents a much needed reprieve now and again.
"Maio, where we go?"
She shifted his weight as she stepped down from the kerb and made to cross the street, glancing both ways. "We're going to see a friend."
James screwed up his small features. He looked almost like a small Percy, all things considered, with Harry's brows, and hair that was darker than a Weasley's but as messy as any Potter's. "I make a frien?"
"Yes, Jaimie, We're going to see Eileen."
"'Leen."
Hermione paused once she had made it to the outskirts of Waldweirness, considering. Eileen might prefer a tad more respect from the child than being called by her Christian name.
"Can you say Aunt?"
"Ant!" he pronounced, sounding like he was saying the name of the insect.
"Close enough. Can you say Aunt Eileen?"
"Ant Leen."
"Very good," Hermione said, looking at the child with a grin. She bounced him a bit, causing him to giggle. "Did your parents tell you that while you're with me, you're to listen to me as if I was them?"
James, his eyes alight with mischief, shook his head no, but he couldn't hide the liar's grin of small, rounded toddler teeth that belied his deception.
"Ohhhhh, I know that's not true, young man," Hermione said, in a mock scold. "They did tell you, didn't they."
"Yes, Maio." He finally admitted, with an adorable sulk.
"Well, the same is true with Aunt Eileen. You're to be on your best behaviour, you understand?"
His face seemed a bit blank and Hermione worried that she may have used words too big for him.
"If you're nice and good, then Aunt Eileen will be nice and good to you. I don't want to hear about any tantrums, or demands for sweets, okay? When I come back, Aunt Eileen is going to tell me how you did."
James merely cocked his head to the side, considering her words.
Hermione frowned to herself, finally making it into the residential area, "Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into..." She slowly picked her way toward Eileen's stoop, managing an awkward waddle up the stairs with her double-heavy load.
While she waited on the older woman to make her way to answer the door (it generally took her clients a longer time than one might usually expect to manage their ways around their abodes), she observed a lone man on the street, tall of stature and with messy tufts of mousy brown hair, passing in the opposite direction. He glanced up at her and the child on more than one occasion, and Hermione felt a rare, and nearly nostalgic, sense of unease.
Normally, she passed off feelings of paranoia as being undesirable vestiges of the war. Nothing more than a ghost, passing her by, alerting her to memories she'd thought she'd buried deep and distant. This was not reminiscent of that feeling. She was being observed...
She tried to settle herself comfortably, as if she was paying no attention, while resting her wand arm with her hand hidden between her bags and herself, gripping tight to the handle of her vinewood wand. She moved to stand as if she were simply resettling the toddler to be more comfortable, while in truth, she was putting him between Eileen's front door and herself, blocking the sight and direct path of him with her body.
Not quickly enough, in her opinion, Eileen finally answered the door.
"Finally, get in. Come in, quickly!" She barely opened the door enough for Hermione to pass through.
"What's going on," Hermione hissed through her teeth to the woman, "Didn't you know we were coming?" She patted James gently on the back as he started whimpering at her tone and slowly allowed him to slide to the floor. "Grab onto my jeans, James, this will only be a moment."
She felt two small arms wrap around her left leg in a vice grip.
Eileen glanced at the small child appraisingly for only a moment before motioning that Hermione should drop her bags in the entryway and follow her to the kitchen.
Having done so, Hermione resettled the toddler on her hip once more as Eileen drew back the curtains over the sink and together the three crowded around to look out the small window.
"Do you know that man? Is he a resident?" Eileen softly questioned, her hand trembling ever so slightly.
The younger woman swallowed thickly, considering. "I've never seen him before today... I don't know that he lives here."
The old witch growled, low in her throat as her black eyes tracked his movements. He didn't seem to be pacing back and forth, but he clearly wasn't headed out of the neighborhood, or in any identifiable direction. He'd double back, sometimes he'd dip down an alleyway only to emerge minutes later, or would meander down a different street, but reappear at the mouth of their street once more.
"His behaviour seems... somewhat reminiscent of some of our residents," Hermione muttered, feeling unsure.
"Who dat?"
Eileen snorted and gave a small smile to the boy on her Social Worker's hip. "Wouldn't we like to know, child." She turned to look at Hermione. "I thought of sending one of those orbs... but you said this one's" she indicated James with a boney finger, "father would be outside of the country by now, and I didn't want to summon you if it was merely one of the loonies here..."
"That's not very nice to say," Hermione muttered back.
"Loony!" James said with some joy, his small finger pointing at the questionable figure.
"No, James. What did I say?"
The toddler squirmed, which she felt and didn't see, her eyes were still trained on the lone figure that seemed to be canvasing the neighborhood. "Nice and good..." his reply was sullen.
"Yes, nice and good. And Loony is not nice. So, we're not to say it."
Eileen's clawed hand clutched spasmodically at the window sash. "He reminds me of Toby..."
"How so?"
"I haven't gotten a look at 'is face, but that hair... that's how Toby wore it. It were that exact colour."
"If it were your ex-husband, wouldn't he be far older now? Might he have grey hair?"
"I didn't say it was him, Granger," Eileen hissed, her voice going a bit nasty. Hermione decided to let it slide off, used to Eileen responding in such a way when she was under duress. "He has his... his look. Same shoulders... same walk... same bum for Merlin's sake!"
James giggled at the word bum, and Hermione decided to let him slide to the floor again, admonishing him once again to hold onto her leg. "He's probably a resident, Eileen, I don't know them all..." it was a lie, but she needed the old witch calm to look after James. "But I'm willing to go out and talk to him and to see if I can't help him find what he's looking for."
Hermione turned to the kitchen table and withdrew James' nappy bag from her back pocket, enlarging it. "Will you be alright with this one for a few minutes? All of his toys and everything you'll need are in here,"
"Oh I think me an 'im will be fine, Miss Granger." The older woman surprised her by gracing James with a small, but very warm, smile. She stooped to eye level. "Now you're not Albus Severus, I'm guessing. He'd be younger."
James wrinkled his brow. "I'm James."
Eileen reached out and took his small hand, pantomiming a handshake, though James clearly didn't know how to follow along yet. "Well met, Little James. I'm Eileen."
"Ant Leen!" James crowed, proud of himself.
"Yes, that's right," she continued to babble to the toddler quite fluently, leading him into the sitting room. "Hermione's going to be back in a little while, child—can you show me your favourite toys?"
Hermione gave a small smile, feeling a bit of relief as Eileen distracted the small child with the ease and grace of a practiced mother.
"I'm going to ward you in, alright? I'll speak to the man, and then I'll be back to collect the groceries for the residents."
She only got a nod in response, Eileen already being too engaged in the tot's world of pretend to offer up a proper reply.
Hermione withdrew her wand from her waistband and disillusioned herself in the small entryway. Opening and closing the door as little as was possible to slip out, hopefully unnoticed. At that moment it appeared that the man had made one of his swings down the alleys. She took the time, while she knew she was unobserved, to ward the front door thoroughly. Her wand trailed along her trainers last, casting a silencing charm before she crept down the front stairs, her back flush with the exterior wall, and moving as slowly as possible to prevent the tell-tale shimmer of disillusionment.
Moments later, the figure re-emerged from the alleyway he'd dipped down. He was half a block ahead of her. She stilled as his head whipped, side to side, his eyes settling precisely on Eileen's house, before he, with seeming reluctance, continued his circuit that would carry him down a side street, before he likely would make his way back again.
With his back now to her, Hermione could observe him better as she crept forward, mirroring his steps, and ducking behind anything that would give her momentary cover should he turn.
He was indeed tall, but not towering. Perhaps an inch away from being six feet. And young, though not as young as she herself was. He couldn't have been Eileen's ex-husband, however.
Though, privately, Hermione thought Tobias must have had a nice arse, if this man's was in any way truly similar.
His clothes were muggle in origin, being non-descript blue jeans, rolled to a slight cuff around a pair of beat-to-hell black work boots. His shirt, a somewhat rough-woven white button up, was neatly tucked into his waistband, revealing a trim torso. Yet, his presence in Waldweirness belied his muggle dress. He had to be of magical origin. He couldn't have gotten in otherwise...
Finally, she'd managed to creep within a foot of him, and she carefully, and voicelessly, dissolved her camouflaging before tapping him on the shoulder.
If Hermione had expected the man to turn, to introduce himself or otherwise, she was woefully mistaken, and also, unprepared. For he instead took off into a leggy sprint. She gave chase.
He dipped to the right and swerved down the next available alley, and if she hadn't been so close to him she may not have been able to duck with him and keep pace, but, seeing that it was a dead-end, she instead crouched and launched herself through the air, her arms wrapping around his knees in the time it took him to turn into a rapid spin.
With a loud crack of accidental side-long apparition both Hermione Granger and the stranger had disappeared from Waldweirness without a trace.
Torn feet, I got snakebites
Walk with the blind
Trying to hide
Free me from this dark night
Tell me sweet lies
Say that we'll be alright
"PSYCHO" (reprise) – DREAMDNVR & Boy In Space