August 12, 2004
I walk in with my head held high back to Fortescue's. A nod to all the appropriate people and a smile to all the little girls who need someone to be their proof that the sky's the limit. I'm my fully pleasant self until I'm safely alone in the bathroom and I can finally let the tears fly.
I didn't use to be like this. Before the press couldn't penetrate my thick skin but it took only one reporter to almost ruin Evangeline's life. I splash water on my face, reapply my makeup and I was out the door to meet my family.
"Did you guys order yet?"
August 14, 2004
Two days. I had been back two days and still, I couldn't force myself to face everyone I left behind. Don't get me wrong I feel nothing but that didn't mean that it still wouldn't hurt. I thought they'd been my friends but after so many years without any attempts at contacting me tore at my self-esteem. I helped them fight a war for Merlin's sake! Wasn't I worth an owl now and then? Or was I just a dispensable know-it-all? They wouldn't have survived First Year without me-
"Hermione?"
I lifted my gaze from my book on animal-based potions ingredients Keelan sent me and smile. "Ginny." I rose to meet her halfway and kiss her cheeks as the French do. No need to hide my parentage any longer. "How have you been?"
The red-headed girl turned woman tried to wipe discreetly at her cheeks but we both knew she'd done it, after all, if it wasn't native to Great Britain then it was to be pushed aside as decreed by the Weasley matriarch. Still, I held my tongue from saying anything. Guess Fleur hadn't changed their minds after all. "How have I been? Please the real question here is how you've been. Merlin Hermione, we haven't seen you since the final battle!"
"Pictures not enough for you Gin?" I joke.
"You know what I mean Herms." That accursed nickname.
"Yes, well I've been busy you know?" I respond neutrally.
Ginny smiles amiably as she orders a cuppa. "You should make more time for your friends then."
And now I remember why I didn't like you. "Funny you mention that." I put my cup down with a small smile that hid behind shadows. "I did make time. You remember all those times I invited you and your family, right? I even offered to pay for Portkeys and accommodations for you all yet you've always refused." I said staring her straight in the eyes.
Ginny waves all my words away like they were inconsequential. "Well you know I can't with me playing Quidditch all the time and we don't like charity you know that." She answered with minimal fluster.
I arch an eyebrow. "Ron's and your war hero royalties not enough? Not to mention your Quidditch salary, Ron's Auror pay, and Arthur's salary as well. I hadn't realized your paychecks would be so…minute." I lift my cup to my mouth as her faces redden whether in embarrassment or anger at being caught is anyone's guess. Maybe it had to do with my ruby ring? I needed to stop rubbing my success in people's faces.
I let her bask in her supposed incompetence. "Do not think me stupid Ginevra. You didn't want to see me if you had you would have found a way to ."
She glared at me and I responded in kind. Good. We weren't children anymore and I would not be cowered by her nor her family any longer. "So many assumptions Hermy. How could you know what we do or don't get paid? How could you even presume to know if we had the time or not? We stayed here, we never moved. You could have more easily come to us than expect the entire family to uproot themselves to visit one girl." The claws were out for us lionesses. We'd have a catfight soon if we didn't tone it down. There was a time and place and here was neither.
"Such venomous words from such a little girl. Tell me does Harry know what snake he has in his life?" I sneer. "I've kept track of you Ginevra, of all of those that stayed and I must say I'm not impressed but it is what it is. I didn't come here to start any fights so why don't you tell me what's going on with your life?"
The rest of our conversation passed in relative peace with an undertone of resentment and outright anger at the other party. Many people stopped for the chance to speak to a famous Quidditch player and her even more famous Mover and Shaker of a friend. Ginny was the more enthusiastic of the two, but I attracted followers in my own right with a calm presence and intelligent words.
Calculating that I had finally spent my be-seen-in-public-to-diffuse-absurd-rumors quota of the day I apologized to the crowds and made to leave. "We need to do this again Ginny."
Ginevra smiled back. "We do." Tight smiles, kisses on the cheeks and I was off.
Ginny's p.o.v
I let the door slam behind me. It did nothing to abate my anger but it did make me feel better when I thought of the door closing on her face. "Mum!"
"In the kitchen dear. Can you set the table, please? Harry and Ronald are coming to dinner tonight and I want everything to be-"
"Hermione is back in the country." No sugarcoating, no warning, I just laid it down bare for her to see.
Silence. Mum stopped waving her wand around and dried her hands on her apron as was her usual tick when she was caught off balance. "What?"
I drop into the nearest chair available. "Hermione is back in Great Britain Mum. I saw it in the paper this morning but I didn't think they were speaking the truth. She has a daughter Mum! What kind of woman does that to herself at twenty-four!"
"Bring me the Prophet, Ginny. I want to know just what they managed to get out of her." Mum ordered.
So, I did. And learn we did. The Great Hermione Granger was back in Britain for an undetermined amount of time with no set plans in the future aside from teaching a couple of kids in Hogwarts. She was very protective of her daughter and didn't allow any pictures of her. Oh. And she is a French-born bird. Joy.
Mum folded her hands on the table. Her posture was deceiving. She was too calm for it to be natural for her. "Well, it's good to know that Hermione is back home. We'll have to invite her for dinner one of these days but shame on her for not making a house call or something. For shame."
Mum's words washed over me as my eyes stayed glued to the next paragraph. "Ginny dear?"
I throw the newspaper at Mum and scream.
"Ginny!"
My hands went to my hair in complete fury. After all this time waiting for him. "A green and a brown eye! Her daughter has a green and a brown eye!"
"Ginny?" Mum asked.
A plate meets the wall from my fury. "Hermione fucking Granger's daughter is Harry's! The love of my life has a daughter with the brainy know-it-all!"
She too froze but quickly got herself under control unlike myself. "Lets' not jump to conclusions. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for this. Besides, Harry has never left the country, he couldn't possibly have a child with her if he hasn't left and she wasn't here."
"You don't get it, Mum. She's ruining everything," I cried. All my plans of being the future Mrs. Potter laid in ruins. When Harry learned that he had a daughter he would abandon me to be with the mother. He would 'do right by it' and marry Hermione-bloody-Granger. "She came back to ruin our lives."
Mum knelt in front of me and patted my back. "There is no proof that this girl is Harry's daughter do you hear me? There's no picture to go off and the timing does not coincide. And if she is his daughter then we will deal with it as it comes."
My head falls into her shoulder. "I don't want her to be his daughter. I want Harry to be mine."
"You won't get him looking like that. Go clean up before the boys come back."
"What has to happen before we come back?" Said the dulcet voice of one Harry Potter.
August 14, 2004
The Daily Prophet
Hermione Granger Back on British Soil
With reports coming in from all around the country, the Daily Prophet can finally confirm that one Hermione Granger, one-third of the Golden Trio, is officially back in the country and not just as a short stint either.
Sources say that the Hogwarts House Elves have been working to clean out a new set of teaching apartments in Hogwarts with various letters being sent out to current Hogwarts students alerting them of an "exciting" new opportunity for the upcoming academic year.
The last time something "exciting" happened at Hogwarts was the Tri-Wizard Tournament that resulted in the death of Cedric Diggory, the first official casualty of the Second Blood War. Here at the Prophet we sincerely hope that this "exciting" news doesn't result in the death of another student. But regardless of what her official role would be at Hogwarts, many readers are more concerned with the inevitable reunion of the trio of best friends. So far no word has reached the Prophet about said reunion but we are keeping an eye out to see exactly what welcome the two males of the trio will give their wayward Third.