August 12, 2004
My lips stretch into a smile as I take the familiar sights in. Everything was the same but different. People weren't scared to walk on the streets anymore and music and laughter permeated the Alley again. It felt good to be home and to see it in better conditions than I had left it in.
"Mama! Wake up, mama! Wake up! You can't daydream now. I want to see Diagonal Alley ." The little girl next to me stares up with a pleading look from brown and green eyes. She was pouting so adorably I just had to pinch her cheeks.
"But we are Diagonal Alley already." I joke.
"Mama !"
With the same mannerisms and attitude, she reminded me of my younger years with stomping feet and bushy hair. " Oh alright. Come on then oh excited one. Let's see what's changed in these few years that I've been away ." I reply in French. I grip my her hand tighter and pull her in closer. I'd been away from Great Britain for more than half a decade. I had no intention of letting anything happen to my daughter.
I took great pleasure in showing her all the new sights and the old. She answered rapidly, weaving various languages together, and had most people looking at us strangely. Not so much the fact that they couldn't understand us, yes, I answered back in different tongues, but because we spoke so many, so fluently.
I shrug off their stares as did my little ray of sunshine. Stares were nothing new to us Granger girls. We got them everywhere we went. That was the price of international fame. Animosity was a word that had disappeared from our dictionaries.
"How would you like some Sunshine ice cream ?" I knew I immediately said it wrong when she starts giggling at me.
"Silly Mama! You can't eat sunshine ." She 'chastised' me.
I pat her head. "Guess I'll just leave the language mixing to you then." The downside of raising a child all over the world. They tend to know more about the language(s) than you did. And could combine them like it was nobody's business.
We slowly walk to Fortescue's, I was enjoying being back home too much. Some shops had closed down and been replaced while others simply flourished. Madame Malkin's had expanded and Ollivander's lost its ancient look for a more "modern" (or a definition of modern) one. The Alley itself seemed to have expanded to accommodate news stores and designated floo areas had also become an addition (with no small amount of satisfaction in myself of course).
"Evangeline," I called.
She stopped trying to take everything in at once to gaze up at me. "Yes, mama ?" If it weren't for her lone green eye you would think she was a carbon copy of me. Same brown uncontrollable hair, the same shade of brown eye and personality. Her father's traits were hidden at first sight, but they were there. That lone green eye betrayed her full parentage.
"We're in the U.K now so you have to speak English now. When in Rome…"
"Act like the Romans. I know mama. I just get excited and things come out differently."
I pull her into a hug. "I know you don't mean it but you need to try okay?"
She wrapped her little arms around me. "Yes, mama."
"Let's get you that ice cream then," I say.
We continued our way to the ice cream store. I chatter mindlessly and Evangeline absorbed every kernel of information I gave her. I talked about Hogwarts and my exploits and adventures. I talked about the teachers and the people and I talked about her father. Not the first time I'd done so but not as often as I could have.
I had yet to tell her who her father was but after seeing the pictures I knew that she knew. She never asked and I never told and we've left it at that. The moment she wants to learn about her father as her father she'll ask, and I'll answer.
Just like I've talked to her about all my friends and acquaintances from Hogwarts and beyond, I never lied to her. If there was something, I didn't think she should know I merely told her no. Someday she would be mature enough to hear all the realities that I've lived through but not yet for a very long time.
"So, then Ginny caught the snitch. Her brothers were so surprised. They didn't think that their little sister could fly like that!"
"Ginny sounds so cool!"
"She is. She's a player for the Holyhead Harpies, Great Britain's only all-female Quidditch team. I'll introduce you to her one of these days. You'll love her." We were almost at the ice cream parlor now. I needed to take Evangeline down a notch or she'd be a ball of energy later. I stare ahead. Then again maybe she doesn't have to.
"Sunshine," I whisper.
"Yes, mama?"
I point out a gentleman in black trousers and a button-down. "If you want any ice cream you have to ask him okay?"
She looks at me weirdly but nods. "Ok."
She makes her way closer to the and laughs when she notices who I've sent her to. "I want a triple vanilla caramel sundae with lots and lots of sprinkles!" I hear her excited voice say.
"Sorry sweetie but you'll have to ask your mum about that." Responded the blonde woman next to the man.
"Mama told me to ask you!"
Finally, the man started to turn. "And who's your mama young lady- Evangeline!"
Evangeline threw her hands in the air. "Surprise Uncle Neville, Aunty Luna!" Neville tucks her into his arms and hugs her close to his chest.
"Merlin you've grown so much, Angel!" Exclaimed Luna.
"How's my favorite goddaughter?"
"Silly uncle Nev. I'm your only goddaughter!"
"Exactly! That makes you my favorite!"
It had been months since the last time we saw each other and so I couldn't help but laugh at their expressions. "Hermione!" Neville passed Evangeline along to her godmother/aunt and swung me around in a hug. I was grateful for the closeness to my friends they were practically family at this point. "I've missed you guys so much!"
A couple of heads turns around the store and Neville finally put me down. Luna wrapped me in her hug. "Look at you Hermione, you get more beautiful every time I see you. Come let me take a look at you."
I laugh at my friend's antics. "You sound like an old lady Luna."
"Pish posh. Narggles are affecting your brains. Now turn."
I smile at her silliness and turn. Black slacks with matching black stilettoes and a V neckline blouse and blazer folded at the elbows. I had my hair half up half down with a rose bun on the back and strands placed to frame my face. A pearl necklace and bracelet plus diamond earrings that fit me perfectly finished my look and had me simple, elegant, and looking like a million bucks without breaking a sweat.
Several wolf whistles rang out as I spun for Luna. "Someone Agumenti her. She's smoking." She joked.
"Right back in your general direction Luna." It was true. With a midi skirt, ankle booties, and a brown cardigan closed at the waist by a belt, she was looking like a very well-dressed Lady of her status with more than a hint of her Lunaness.
"Ohh are we comparing outfits? Do me next. Do me next!"
Neville performed his own twirl and we couldn't stop laughing. Evangeline did her own in her adorable Mary Janes and skirts. Unlike me, she was much girlier in her dressing. Blue polka dot skirt with white (enchanted of course) shoes and shirt. I'd even managed to calm her hair enough to put a bow in.
Being three of Britain's most notorious residents and a young witchling in the making, we made quite the group and grabbed everyone's attention.
"It's Hermione Granger!"
"Is it really her?"
"Miss Granger! Miss Granger!"
People took pictures and crowded around us. I usher Evangeline to Neville and push him and Luna inside to the ice cream parlor. I smile and with a flick of my wand, every camera pointed my way stopped working.
"Please, I do not appreciate people crowding or taking pictures of my underage daughter without my permission. Next time I'll do more than just freezing them in place." I said in my coldest tone. Most shivered and stepped away from me. Not having been in the country or not people still knew better than to mess with me.
Someone grabs my hands. It's an older man with tears in his eyes. "Thank you. Thank you, Miss Granger. The werewolf cure- there are not enough words for me to thank you, Miss. You gave me a job, you gave me my life back. Thank you just thank you." Someone tried to pull the man away and I simply wave them off.
"Thank you, sir, for believing in me enough to even try my cure. It warms my heart to see the people who I have helped have a better life. It is for people like you that I continue working."
Pressing a kiss and my business card into his hand I watch him walk away and I turn to look back at the crowd of reporters that were watching my every move. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
They did not wait a second. "When did you arrive in Great Britain?"
"This morning."
"What are your plans now that you're back?"
"I plan on spending some time reconnecting with old friends."
"Did you leave Great Britain because you were pregnant?"
More and more questions were thrown my way but I focused on the reported who accused me of running away. "Let us get something straight and you will quote me on this.
"I left Great Britain because for me it was the right thing for me to do. I needed to find my parents whose memory I erased and I needed to distance myself from the horrors of the war. I was involved in the war from the moment I stepped foot in the magical world. I needed a respite and so when I had the chance to leave I took it.
"I was not and never was running away. I did not leave because I was pregnant. I needed a break and I needed to make a name out of myself aside from the Man-Who-Won's Mudblood friend. I am so much more than a war heroine and I left so that the title would not define me.
"For you to even assume that my daughter had anything to do with my decision is an insult to my person. My daughter has enjoyed our travels and has not been affected negatively in any way, shape, or form. She's made friends all over the world, has mastered more languages than most people will ever bother to do and has inspired everyone around her to be the best person possible. If any of you even think about defaming her then I can promise you that that will be the last thing any of you will do. No pictures, no mentions of her without my explicit permission or there will be hell to pay."
Many seemed angry at my barring them from writing about the most interesting thing that my return had provided still, my previous answer took the heat off most of the reporters if only for fear of facing my wrath. Most were scribbling away in response to my little speech and those that weren't still hanged to my every word and continued to ask questions. "What project are you going to work on in Great Britain Miss Granger?"
"Currently I have no set project in mind. I work as I go, not because I have a set place in mind to complete my work in. I traveled all of Asia before I finally made my breakthrough in the cure to Lycanthropy. I toured South America and Africa before the idea occurred to me to create a translating charm."
"Are you saying then that you don't plan on working in Great Britain and bringing prestige to your homeland? You left because you couldn't deal with the reconstruction of the homeland that you helped destroy and left in despair, and now can't even bring yourself to do some good to the people? How selfish of you Miss Granger."
I smile sharply. "Rita Skeeter. How utterly disgusting to see you again."
She smiled back just as venomously. "You haven't answered the question, Miss Granger. Are you perhaps trying to avoid it?"
I laugh and finger my expensive pearls making sure that more than one reporter got sight of it. "I would answer your question, Miss Skeeter if you had asked one. As far as I am concerned what you said was a very pointy attempt at a jab at me. But if you are referring to what work I will be performing in Great Britain the simple answer is: I don't know. It will depend on my availability. Headmistress McGonagall has asked me to teach at Hogwarts so most of my attention will be there. Did you catch that this time or must I repeat myself?"
"Who's the father Hermione?" Skeeter persisted.
"With all due respect Rita, that is frankly none of your business."
"Is it Neville Longbottom? The fiancée of your friend Luna Lovegood?"
I ignore the witch animagus. "Thank you everyone for your warm welcome but I must go back to my daughter now, it is her first time in the country after all. Please excuse me."
I walk towards the entrance of the ice cream shop but turn back at the last moment. "Oh, and by the way Rita? I was born in France. I had my pick between Beauxbatons and Hogwarts. So, no. Magical Great Britain is not my homeland."
August 2004
Wizarding Wireless Network News
The Return of the Golden Daughter
After more than five years of absence, the only female of the Golden Trio is back on British soil. The return of Hermione Grange, the so-called "Brightest Witch of her Age", came to the surprise of many. Mistress Granger was spotted by fans and the press alike when she made her way into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour with her young daughter and old school friends, Lord Neville Longbottom and his fiancée Luna Lovegood, neither of which, sources say, knew of her return.
"So, I'm standing in line behind them you know? And then there comes this little girl out of nowhere asking for ice cream. Of course, Lord Longbottom wasn't just going to buy sweets for some random kid but when he looks at her it's like his whole face light up! He swung her around and did the same with Hermione Granger when he saw her. Both him and Lovegood were so surprised."
While we here at WWNN don't know all the news regarding Mistress Granger's return, some are already speculating it might have something to do with her recent run-in with Neo-Death Eaters in Germany. Others say that the timing might just match because of the teaching invitation Headmistress McGonagall extended to the renowned Mistress. But whatever the reason, we at WWNN are happy to welcome Mistress Granger back to the country.
To learn more about Hermione Granger's trip to Germany turn to page 4.