My beta-readers, fredfred and InquisitorCOC, deserve a huge thank you. They helped a lot.
Chapter 30: The Conference
Rye, East Sussex, Britain, October 15th, 2005
His parents were watching him. Them. And Ron knew the expression on Mum's face. He sighed. "Look at my parents," he whispered.
"What?" Hermione turned her head and saw them as well. "Oh," she added, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open.
"Yes," Ron replied. "Mum'll want to interrogate you."
"I can imagine."
"Did that happen… before?"
"No. I knew them long before we became a couple."
"Ah." Another difference.
Hermione was glancing back and forth between his parents and the Grangers, who were still hugging each other. This was becoming really awkward. They couldn't exactly walk away.
But before he or Hermione could think of how to handle this, Mum and Dad joined them. "What happened, Mr and Mrs Granger?" Mum asked straight away, with a glance at Ron that made it clear that she was wondering whether or not he was responsible for whatever had happened.
Mr Granger took a deep breath. "It's… we just received word that…" he trailed off, but Mrs Granger, between sniffles, blurted out: "Our daughter's dead."
Whatever Mum and Dad had expected, that wasn't it - they looked shocked. "Your daughter…?" Dad managed to say while Mum pressed her hand to her mouth.
"Yes," Mrs Granger said, then gasped and looked at Hermione. "I mean… I'm sorry."
Hermione nodded with a grimace. "I know." She took a step away from Ron and hugged the Grangers. And started to sniffle.
Which left Ron to face the pointed looks of his parents.
"Perhaps we should give them some privacy," Mum said. It wasn't a suggestion, of course.
Ron shook his head and kept his eyes on Hermione. He wasn't moving from her side. Not now. And if he had his way, not ever.
A few minutes later, the Grangers - all of them - had recovered their composure. They had also become the centre of attention, of course, but everyone - even Xenophon, though only after a little prompting by Luna, Ron had noticed - was too polite to bother them. Well, apart from Luna's dad and Ron's parents, everyone present already knew what this was about. And while Ron was sure that the room was bugged, even if he hadn't spotted any bugs - Dumbledore had prepared the meeting, after all - he was also sure that the old spymaster wouldn't let anyone not already aware of the truth listen in to their conversation.
Hermione returned to Ron and looked at him, biting her lower lip. He knew what she meant, but he couldn't make that decision for her. On the other hand, Mrs Granger had already let most of the cat out of the bag. With how famous the Granger case was, both the past kidnapping and the recent events, Mum and Dad wouldn't fail to find out that the Grangers didn't have another daughter.
She must have come to the same conclusion since she took a deep breath and turned to face their audience. "Most of you already know this. I'm not the Hermione who was kidnapped and murdered fourteen years ago."
"Oh, my! Are you from a parallel universe? Or a clone?" Xenophon asked, leaning forward. "Are you working on getting back to your world? Or trying to escape your creators?"
Well, they should have expected that reaction.
"Yes, I'm from another world," Hermione said. "And I'm working on opening a way back."
Ron saw Harry frown, but this revelation wouldn't change much, if anything - their parents were already in danger, after all, and their enemies already suspected the truth, or most of it.
"What?" Mum blurted out. "That's ridiculous!" She shook her head, then turned to glare at Ron. "And you! Do you honestly think we'll fall for such a stupid story?"
Ron drew a slow, hissing breath. Right. Without proof, the truth did sound unbelievable.
"I knew it! A parallel world! And you've been fighting a shadow war against other dimensional travellers whose aim is to take over our world!"
And that Xenophon was apparently not questioning it at all wouldn't help. What could he say to convince them that Hermione wasn't lying?
"Don't tell me that you actually believe this!" Mum went on - apparently, Ron had waited a little too long before responding. "This isn't one of your silly books!"
"My books aren't silly!" he retorted at once, before immediately regretting it - now he sounded like a teenager. "And this isn't about my books at all. We've got proof."
"Proof?" Dad sounded rather dubious as well.
"You can ask Dumbledore!" Ginny cut in. "He can vouch for us."
"'Us'?" Mum wasn't taking that little hint well, either. "What exactly do you mean?"
"As much as I respect him," Dad said, putting a hand on Mum's arm, "he is a former intelligence agent, and used to obscuring the truth - often for our own good, as he's fond of saying."
"But he wouldn't pick an unbelievable cover story," Ron pointed out.
"On the contrary!" Xenophon cut in. "He would do exactly that, knowing that we would think he wouldn't."
"But it's true," Luna said. "We've seen proof."
"You saw the other world?" Dad asked.
"No," she replied. "But we saw what Hermione brought over."
"Yes," Mr Granger added.
"Really?" Dad still sounded sceptical. "You wouldn't happen to have such proof with you, would you?"
"Arthur!" Mum exclaimed. "Don't tell me that you believe this! This is obviously a fancy tale to hide what's really going on. And it's putting our children in danger!" She was now glaring at Hermione, Ron noticed. That was a really bad sign.
"Hermione? Perhaps you could demonstrate?" Mrs Granger suggested.
Hermione didn't reply at once, though - she was glancing at him, Ron noticed. "Cat's out of the bag," he told her.
That made her snort, and she held up her beaded bag.
"That ratty old bag is your proof?" Mum could be really snide when she wanted.
"Yes, this ratty old bag is actually much bigger on the inside than it appears," Hermione replied in a sharp tone.
"A bag of holding?" Dad asked. Ron had to suppress a snicker at hearing that.
Instead of answering, Hermione handed the bag over to Mum and Dad. "Please examine it so you can be certain that this is not a parlour trick."
Without being 'keyed' to the bag - like Ron and Harry were - they couldn't access the extended interior, only the decoy compartment. Which was filled with the typical contents of a purse. Mum didn't do more than glance at the bag, but Dad emptied it, then did his best to turn it inside out. He even inspected the seams, Ron saw - well, Dad liked to tinker in his spare time, so that would come naturally to him.
"It's a normal bag," Ron's father finally stated after several minutes.
Hermione smiled sweetly - and triumphantly - as she retook her bag. Knowing what was coming, Ron took a step back. As did the others of their group as well as the Grangers.
Then Hermione emptied the real contents of the bag of holding on to the floor: MREs, tents, a zodiac - not inflated, of course - jerry cans, more food, water bottles, and, of course, lots of guns and other illegal gear.
Ron really enjoyed seeing his parents' jaws almost join the gear on the ground. 'Silly books', indeed!
"That's…" Dad blinked. "How on earth is this possible?"
"It must be a trick!" Mum insisted.
"It's not a trick," Hermione retorted. "The space inside the bag has been extended - to many times its actual volume." She put her hands on her hips and frowned at Ron's mum. "And, in any case, how would I have been able to smuggle all these supplies into this room? And then make them fall out of a bag?"
"Perhaps an optical illusion…" Dad trailed off.
"We've moved around in this room," Ron said. "No mirrors. No smoke."
Sirius, who had obviously kept a rather low profile after he and Harry had been on the receiving end of Mum's fury, chuckled.
"And even if it were a trick, it would require technology we don't have in this world," Ron pointed out. "Which would be proof in itself."
"It wouldn't," Xenophon corrected him. "No government, ever, would reveal the full extent of their capabilities."
"Spatial warping like this is too far beyond the technology curve to have been developed in this world," Ron retorted.
"That's what they want us to believe!" Luna's father shook his head.
"I've verified it, Daddy," Luna told him.
"Really?"
"Yes." Luna nodded emphatically.
"That's alright, then."
"That's impossible…" Mum was still shaking her head, and Dad didn't look much better. "And what are those guns? Those aren't police issue, are they?"
"Uh…" Ron winced once more. It seemed that they had overlooked that little detail.
"Ron!"
And he was about to get the blame for everything.
"We need the weapons to defend ourselves," Hermione interjected as she gathered them up and started to return them to her bag.
"Yes! Putin's certain to send his best agents after us!" Luna added. She was trying to help, but that comment had the opposite effect.
Mum blew up again. "Of course he will after you invaded Russia! What were you thinking?"
"We were hunting the person behind all the attacks on us," Harry spoke up. "The man responsible for Bones and Scrimgeour's murders."
"In Russia?" Mum retorted.
"That's outside your jurisdiction," Dad pointed out.
"Well, we're currently suspended, and we're quitting CI5 soon enough, anyway," Harry replied. "So we're not really bothered about jurisdiction any more."
"Indeed," Sirius confirmed. "They're free agents, or, rather, they soon will be."
Mum gasped. "What? You're quitting? What about your career? Ron!"
He grimaced. "Mum, my career - our careers - wouldn't have gone anywhere, anyway. Scrimgeour and Bones, both murdered when coming to meet us? And then us vanishing afterwards?" He snorted. "No one's going to trust us. Not really."
"But… it wasn't your fault!" Mum protested.
He shrugged. "That doesn't matter. Yaxley's death won't help, either - it's just too convenient that the main suspect's disappeared without a trace." And if they revealed how he'd died, things would look even worse for them.
"But…"
"You also stepped on too many toes - and you were too successful," Sirius said. "Whether it's the army or the police, it's always the same - playing by the rules is more important than getting results."
"Moody's doing fine," Harry pointed out.
"He probably knows too much about everyone," Sirius retorted. "But that might not help him if they install someone from outside CI5 as Bones's successor. And they would never pick him for the position."
"Who else can they pick? Dawlish?" Ron scoffed. "He's got the seniority, so they can't choose anyone junior to him."
"Not unless they were far more talented and knew the right people," Harry added.
Ron nodded. "And there's no one in CI5 who would fit the bill." Well, Harry would have - rich, famous and talented - but that bridge had already been burned before their last case.
"But what will you be doing instead?" Mum asked.
"We'll become private investigators," Harry said. "Security, bodyguarding, private investigations. There's a lot of demand if you're good enough. Which we are," he added with a grin.
Ron cleared his throat. "And there's also the portal, which will need to be protected."
"You're going to work for Dumbledore?" Dad asked.
Ron shrugged to hide his unease at the question. He didn't like the old man. "We've been working for him for months now."
"And he's almost got you killed! I'm going to have words with him!" Mum exclaimed.
"Molly!" Dad said, a little sharply. "You heard Ginny - they insisted."
"Yes, we did," Ron's sister confirmed.
"Can't trust anyone else," Sirius added - with quite misplaced nonchalance, in Ron's opinion.
"You're not going to drag my children to war again!" Mum snarled at Sirius.
"Molly, I'm sure Sirius won't do it again," Dad interjected.
"No one dragged me to war!" Ginny protested.
"Yes, you insisted on coming along," Luna agreed.
"There won't be any more such missions," Hermione told his parents. "Dumbledore was quite clear on that at the last debriefing. All that we're going to do now is stay at a secret location while I work on the portal."
"For how long?" Mum stared at Hermione. "You'll go back to your world, but what about everyone else?"
"We'll fix things," Ron told her - Hermione was looking guilty again, even though it wasn't her fault. "Everyone's going to be able to live normal lives again." Or as normal as the Lovegoods' lives ever were.
"And how will you manage that?" Dad asked. "A portal to another world… and the secret's out. The Russians know about it."
"Some Russians suspect," Harry corrected him.
"Are you going to kill them?" Xenophon asked. "They'll have taken measures to prevent the information from dying with them. Spies always do that, so their superiors don't kill them to keep their secrets secret."
"We know that and are taking it into account," Hermione said. "My world has a few options this world lacks, as the bag demonstrates."
"Oh!" Xenophon said. "Are you from the future as well as from another dimension? Is this technology stolen from the aliens trying to suborn our government?"
"There are no aliens in my world," Hermione told him.
"I know you have to say that." Luna's father nodded with a wink.
Hermione tried again. "No, there really aren't any aliens in my world."
Ron sighed and shook his head when she glanced at him. He knew from experience that Luna was the only one who could make Xenophon change his opinion.
"So we're just to trust you that you'll 'fix' this? That everything will go back to normal, all the deaths just forgotten?"
Ron winced at his mother's tone. That was the same tone she'd taken when the twins had revealed their plans to start a joke shop. He saw the Grangers flinching, too - though that was probably for other reasons.
"Yes. It'll take a while, but we will fix this." Hermione raised her chin and Ron saw she was meeting Mum's eyes with a determined expression.
Mum broke eye contact first - by switching her glare to Ron. "And you? Will you go with her when she returns to her world?"
Ron knew what she meant, but since he didn't know the answer to that question, he chose to misinterpret her. "We don't know what's been happening in Hermione's world during the last seven years. Going back alone wouldn't be smart."
"Yes!" Luna piped up. "If her enemies won the civil war, we'll have to fight a real fascist regime in an alternate Britain!"
"'Civil war'?" "What civil war?" "You were in a war?"
Ron closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. They really should have planned this meeting in detail.
"Yes," Hermione replied. "I was fighting in a war against genocidal fascists when I was accidentally transported to this dimension."
"At your age?" Mum asked, looking shocked now. "You must have been barely eighteen!"
"I've been fighting against them since I was twelve," Hermione retorted, "together with my world's Harry and Ron."
"What?"
"And my and Ginny's counterparts joined the fight a few years later!" Luna cut in with a proud smile.
"As did all of the other Weasleys," Hermione went on, "as well as Sirius and the Lovegoods."
"We fought in a civil war? In Britain?" Dad seemed to have more trouble with that revelation than with the fact that alternate dimensions and parallel worlds were real. Then again, he had grown up with Dr Who - Ron had inherited his love for fantasy and science fiction from him.
"We let you fight in the war? Children?" Mum, of course, had slightly different priorities.
"We had no choice," Hermione replied. "My world's Tom Riddle was the leader of the fascists, and he was focused on my world's Harry. He tried to kill him several times during our school years - we were all at the same boarding school."
"All of you?" Xenophon asked. "That seems like a remarkable coincidence."
"All of our counterparts - with the exception of my parents - are humans with special gifts, and went to a special school," she explained. "And we were taught by my world's Dumbledore - who also ran one faction in the civil war."
Ron managed not to smile as he saw his parents' reactions to that information. Perhaps they wouldn't trust the old man as much as they had up to now - if Dumbledore's willingness to let the group go on dangerous missions hadn't already achieved that.
"'Special gifts'? Like the X-Men?" Dad sounded even more sceptical. And Mum's scowl had deepened. Xenophon, on the other hand, was beaming.
In response, Hermione held out her hand. "Accio glass!"
Even though he had seen it before, Ron still watched with fascination as the glass lifted off from the table in the centre of the room and slowly flew towards her. There was just something… special… to this that enchanted items like the beaded bag of holding lacked. And it didn't involve rituals and blood and incense.
"It's not a trick, either," Hermione said as she finished her spell. "In my world, a tiny minority have such special gifts."
"Telekinesis!" Xenophon exclaimed. "How wonderful! Can you fly as well?"
"No. Levitating a glass of water is about the most I can do like this," Hermione replied. "But with the right supplies - exclusive to my world, unfortunately - I can create items such as my bag. Or potions that heal wounds."
"They work like a charm, too." Sirius's grin turned a little snide as he addressed Mum: "So you see, we weren't exactly being 'suicidally reckless' when we went on our missions; we had healing potions and other such items to keep us safe."
"In order to heal someone, they have to get hurt first," Dad pointed out.
"That was merely one example - I have a number of other items available," Hermione told him. "But back to the war... In my world, the existence of such gifts and items is hidden from the public and limited to a select few members of government - as well as all the gifted. And some of them tried to take over the country and exterminate everyone they deemed impure - or subhuman. Like me. Or my Harry's mother."
"Dear Lord!"
"It was a war fought in the shadows, one side led by Dumbledore, the other by Tom Riddle, with the government being mostly ineffective," Hermione continued. "And the school was fought over as well. We had the upper hand until Dumbledore was killed. Then we had to go underground and fight back any way we could. I had an accident and ended up in this world during what we hoped would be the decisive battle of the war."
"And you want to return to your world to continue the war?" Dad asked.
"If needed." Ron saw Hermione press her lips together. "My world's Harry and Ron are my best friends - we were inseparable during our school years."
Ron stepped closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She didn't have to say out loud that her friends might be dead. And that she'd avenge them if that were the case. That was obvious.
And he'd help her. No matter what.
"And you want to drag our children into this war!"
Mum looked furious as she glared at Hermione.
"I'm not dragging anyone anywhere!" Hermione retorted, glaring back.
"I'm not going to let her face this alone," Ron said as firmly as he could.
That earned him another glare from Mum. "And what can you do while they use their 'gifts' to kill each other? You're not one of them!"
"There's more to fighting a war than killing," Ron retorted. Just because he wasn't a wizard didn't mean he was useless.
"Oh, yes!" Sirius cut in. "The actual killing is, actually, a small part. It's mostly logistics and paperwork. And training."
"We don't even know if the war's still going on," Hermione added. Ron did notice, though, that she didn't say anything about him being useful in a wizard war.
On the other hand, she had revealed magic to muggles - again. Well, she hadn't actually called it magic, but that was just semantics. And good thinking - Mum would have flipped if she had heard 'witchcraft' or 'magic'. But since Hermione had been taught for years to keep magic secret, wasn't this a good sign? If she planned to vanish into her own world, she wouldn't have done so. Of course, she could simply wipe their memories, but she wouldn't do that.
He shoved a lingering, nagging sliver of doubt away and said: "It doesn't matter. I'm not letting her face this alone."
"I see." Mum narrowed her eyes again. "That's how it is."
"Molly." Dad shook his head.
"Arthur! He's fallen for her - of course he'll follow her!" Her expression left no doubt about what she was implying.
And Hermione had picked it up as well - which shouldn't be a surprise since she knew Mum's counterpart. "Are you insinuating that I am using Ron?"
Mum opened her mouth, presumably to confirm that, but this time, Dad stopped her. "Molly, please." Ron's parents stared at each other for a moment, then Mum looked away, pressing her lips together until they formed a thin line.
Dad sighed, then addressed them: "We're not saying that. But… you are all under a lot of stress. That's not a good state of mind for making important decisions. Also, if Dr Granger knows Ron's counterpart very well, she might… ah… misjudge you, Ron. You only met three months ago."
"I'm very aware of that fact," Hermione replied in a clipped tone. "And trust me, I can tell the difference."
"Were you together with your Ron?" Mum asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.
For a moment, it looked as if Hermione wouldn't answer. But then she nodded curtly. "Yes."
"Ah."
"Mum!" Ron snapped, then took a deep breath. Yelling at his mother wouldn't be a good idea right now. Even Sirius and Harry were keeping quiet. "Our relationship is none of your business. It's no one's business but ours."
"You're my son! I'm not going to watch while you go to another world and fight in a… a… a fantasy war!" she blurted out.
"That's my decision, not yours," Ron retorted.
"Our decision," Luna added. "Just as it was our decision to go to Russia. And Kosovo and Switzerland."
That startled Mum. "But… Luna!"
"This is not about them dating. This is about doing the right thing," Luna told her. "Hermione needs our help, so we'll help her!"
"Luna…" Hermione wasn't crying, Ron saw, but she was blinking rapidly.
"Besides, I want to meet my counterpart!" Luna was beaming.
Ron didn't want to meet his magical counterpart. Not at all. But this wasn't the time to mention that.
Of course, while Luna's declaration had ended the argument before it could escalate, it didn't mean Ron's parents would let things lie. As soon as Hermione and the Grangers had withdrawn to another room to deal with the news about their daughter's death in private, Mum and Dad closed in on him.
"Ron," Mum started - calmer now, fortunately, "have you thought about this? Not about the war," she added, and he could see she was pursing her lips, "but about your relationship. What if she gets back together with her world's Ron?"
Ron managed to school his features and avoid betraying his thoughts - of course he had thought about that. Far too often for comfort, actually. He shook his head. "It's been seven years since she arrived here. She's moved on." And the other Ron would have moved on, anyway - Ron would have, in his place.
"Have you ever talked about it?" she asked.
He glanced around, but he was on his own - the others were keeping their distance. Great. "Yes," he said. "Besides, they probably think she died."
"What? Why?"
He shrugged. "She disappeared during a battle seven years ago."
"But they know about parallel dimensions, don't they?" Dad asked.
"No, they don't," Ron told him. "Hermione's a pioneer."
"Oh." Mum looked surprised.
"Yes. She's a genius." Ron smiled.
"That was never in doubt," Dad said. "We're just worried about your relationship." He sighed. "I said it already: You're under a lot of stress. All the fighting… That's not a good base for a relationship. Even if there weren't your unique circumstances, that might be a problem."
Ron knew what he meant. But that was between Hermione and Ron. "We'll be fine," he said.
And hoped that he would turn out to be right.
Mum didn't look like she agreed - or wanted to accept it - but after another exchange of glances with Dad, she huffed and walked over to the others - presumably to check on Luna.
"Sorry," Ron mumbled after an awkward pause.
"For standing up for your girlfriend?" Dad asked in a low voice.
"For risking my life. But I have to… I can't do nothing," Ron tried to explain.
"We've known that ever since you got hurt the first time and we found out how dangerous working for CI5 is," Dad told him. "We should've known after Pettigrew." He sighed. "But knowing and accepting are two different things. Molly worries a lot about you."
"I know." Ron did. And he hated making his mother worry. But this was too important.
"And Ginny and Luna being involved in this isn't helping," Dad told him.
Ron clenched his teeth for a moment. "I know," he said. "But we couldn't keep them away. Should we have locked them up?" Dad knew them as well as Ron did.
"I guess not." His father shook his head. "You're a stubborn lot, all of you."
"We're your children - what did you expect?" Ron replied. Well, Luna wasn't - but Mum had taken care of her after Luna's mother had died in the car accident.
"You've got me there." Dad chuckled, but it sounded more rueful than amused. "Molly will come around. Eventually."
Ron nodded. Unless one of them died, of course.
"So… a bag of holding and healing potions?" Dad raised his eyebrows as he changed the subject.
"Hermione doesn't like it if we call her bag a bag of holding," Ron replied. "But functionally, that's what it is."
"Clarke's Law?"
"Yes." Ron nodded.
"Ah." Dad waited a moment, but if he wasn't going to ask directly if it was magic, Ron wouldn't tell him. "The 'portal' will be two-way, right?"
"Yes."
"That's good." His father was about to say something else, but the sight of Mum leaving the room - and not in the best state - interrupted him. He nodded at Ron and followed her.
Ron sighed again. Doing the right thing could feel wrong.
Hermione and the Grangers hadn't returned yet, so he went over to Luna and the others.
"Molly doesn't like what we're doing," Luna told him.
"As usual," Ginny said with a frown.
That was unfair, in Ron's opinion. Mum meant well. She just couldn't accept that they weren't children any more. "So, what now?"
Xenophon smiled at him and pulled out an old-fashioned notebook. "Well, I've got a lot of questions, mostly for Dr Granger, but until she returns…"
Ron suppressed a groan. Xenophon could be worse than a CI5 interrogator. On the other hand, it was better than trying to deal with crying parents. "What do you want to know?"
"I'll have to interview Dr Granger as the primary source, of course, for the parallels and differences between our worlds. However, you were actually inside the secret Russian base, weren't you?"
Base? "You mean the compound on the Black Sea coast?" Ron asked.
"Yes. Run by a 'former' KGB officer - It's clear that President Putin was using him so he can claim plausible deniability. Did you find any proof of the link between them?"
As Xenophon's theories went, this wasn't the worst by far that Ron had heard. Not really implausible, either, now that he thought about it. "No, we didn't. We were too busy escaping."
"Ah. A pity. First-hand proof of government conspiracies in Russia is very hard to come by."
Xenophon sighed, and Luna patted his shoulder. "We'll get proof, Daddy. When we're dealing with the Russians once Hermione has settled things in her world, we can uncover their crimes at the same time!"
Ron winced. If Xenophon exposed the Russians, he would be risking his life. And Luna's. The Russians didn't shy away from murder in such cases. He glanced at Harry and Sirius, who looked grim - they would have realised this as well. Ginny, too.
And the worst thing, Ron realised, was that he suddenly understood perfectly how Mum had to be feeling about his own choices.
Mum and Dad were still talking in another room - this really was a secret spy base, with so many safe underground rooms available - by the time Hermione and the Grangers rejoined Ron and the others. He hugged her - she looked like she needed it.
"Where are your parents?" she asked after a moment.
"Mum had to leave for a while to calm down. Dad went with her," Ron said.
"Ah." He heard and felt her sighing. "Not exactly a happy family reunion."
"No," he agreed. "But it could've been worse." Probably.
"It can always be worse."
"Was it as bad in your world? About your mission in the war, I mean," he clarified - he didn't want to hear about how his counterpart's family had reacted to the other Ron getting together with Hermione.
"I don't know - we weren't there when they were told," she replied as she stepped back from his embrace.
"Ah." He stayed close to her. "Did Dumbledore arrange that?"
"He told us not to tell anyone about our mission."
He took that as a 'yes'. "We should have planned this a little more," he said. "Dumbledore organised a secure underground meeting room - with catering - and we pretty much stumbled into this." And Ron was sure that the old spymaster had anticipated that.
"What could we have done differently?" she retorted. "Unless we lied to your parents, they would not have been happy anyway. And there's no good way to tell a parent that their child is dead."
Ron slowly nodded. He didn't quite agree - they could have run this a little better. Prepared his parents and the Grangers a little more. On the other hand, that would have felt like they were 'handling' them. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. "Well, at least no one stormed off."
And if the lunch that would soon be served was as good as the cooking in the laboratory, then that should help improve the mood.
Lunch was excellent - salad, potato soup and steak frites. By the time they were served a variety of desserts, including Ron's favourite mousse au chocolat, the mood certainly had improved, in Ron's opinion.
"The twins opened a joke shop? Really?" Dad sounded bemused, and even Mum was smiling as she shook her head.
"Well, it was a mail-order business, but they had plans to open a shop in our main shopping district later," Hermione answered. An awkward pause followed since everyone knew that 'later' in this case meant 'after the wear' and not 'after school', but that was the elephant no one was talking about at the table.
"The parallels are amazing," Luna piped up. "Especially since there are clear differences as well. We didn't all go to the same school, for instance."
And this world's Hermione had been killed in 1991, and had never met any of them. Ron grabbed another helping from the dessert trolley. Luna hadn't meant it like that, and this Hermione wouldn't have gone to Ron and Harry's school, anyway, but he still carefully didn't look at the Grangers.
"Yes," Hermione agreed. "It's quite the coincidence - or it may be that you can only travel to a dimension that's very close to your own."
"You don't know?" Dad sounded surprised. "But you're close to opening a portal to your home dimension, aren't you?"
She shook her head. "Yes. To my home - not to a random dimension. I already know that interdimensional travel is possible since I've done it, although accidentally, and I have several items from my home dimension, including myself, as a guide."
"Ah. So you're not working on a universal portal, so to speak."
Ron groaned at Dad's pun.
"No, although in theory, it should be possible to use the same method as a base for travelling to other dimensions," Hermione replied.
"Something to explore later," Luna said. "Imagine travelling to worlds with an utterly alien history - perhaps worlds where the dinosaurs didn't go extinct but developed sapience? What do you think our dinosaur counterparts would look like? Would we all be the same kind or different species?"
Ron was about to point out that it was unlikely that two or more different sapient species would evolve on the same planet but then remembered that there were at least a dozen sapient magical species in Hermione's world. And, well, most fantasy books had several sapient races in the same world, like elves, dwarves, orcs and humans.
"Oh, I would like to be able to fly," Luna's father said, nodding enthusiastically.
Luna beamed at him. "Oh, yes. Or… what about a world full of dragons? What type of dragon would your counterpart be? Red, for you, Ron?"
"Only if they're not always chaotic evil," Ron joked, but only Luna, Harry and Hermione laughed. Ginny rolled her eyes, and the others didn't seem to know about D&D.
But it had started the ball rolling, so to speak, and they spent half an hour speculating about various hypothetical versions of everyone without another awkward pause breaking the mood.
M11, East of Cambridge, Britain, October 15th, 2005
"Luna's fallen asleep," Ron whispered as he retook his seat in the car.
"She must have worn herself out," Hermione replied in a low voice. "She practically ran the meeting all afternoon."
Which was probably why they hadn't had another row with his parents. "Luna always was the peacemaker," he said.
Hermione nodded in agreement but didn't elaborate on her Luna. Ron shrugged. "All in all, it could've gone worse."
"We didn't really settle our differences," Hermione pointed out. "They still don't like what we're planning to do."
"It's as settled as it usually goes, for my family," he replied with another shrug."We're too stubborn to actually admit defeat - we just sort of don't bring it up again."
"That doesn't sound like a good way of handling problems."
"It works for us," he told her.
"Well, as long as Molly no longer thinks that I'm going to lure you and Ginny into a war…"
She looked tense, he noticed. "She won't," he tried to reassure her. Of course, should any of them actually die, Mum would blame Hermione. But Hermione would blame herself anyway, as Ron knew, so there was no need to mention that. Not that she wouldn't know it already. "In any case," he continued, "we can now focus on our next step." Travelling to her world. In a way, they had said their goodbyes, too - but no one had mentioned that, of course.
"You mean watching me while I do the research," she said.
"And ensuring that you don't overwork yourself," he added with a grin. And, of course, preparing for the war. Just in case.
She nodded and leaned into his side with a contented - or so he thought - sigh. He closed his eyes and wrapped his left arm around her shoulders. They'd be driving without a break all the way to Scotland, with Smith and Brown alternating at the wheel, so taking a brief nap seemed like a good idea.
"Do we have everything?" she asked, then bit her lower lip. She didn't want to nag. She trusted her friends. But she couldn't help it - this was important.
"Yes, Mum," Ron replied.
She clenched her teeth in response. He was just making a stupid joke. And she saw him flinch as he realised what he had done - just a little too late to keep himself from doing it.
"Sorry, I didn't think…" He shrugged with a grimace.
"It's alright," she told him, nodding curtly.
But it wasn't alright. She really didn't want to be reminded of her parents. Or his. They wouldn't have taken the news that Dumbledore had planned a mission for the trio well. Not that the Grangers or the Weasleys would have been told anything - operational security was paramount - but it didn't take a genius to work that out, not when the three of them had all but vanished right after Dumbledore's funeral.
She didn't like doing it - her parents had barely seen her in the last two years, and would worry terribly about her while they were in hiding, and Molly and Arthur would fret a lot - but it was necessary. Someone had to track down and destroy the last of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and they were the only ones who could do it, thanks to Harry's link with the Dark Lord.
She'd explain everything to her parents after the war. They would understand. At least she hoped they would.
She grabbed her beaded bag and checked the Extension Charm one last time. Then she ran through her mental list of the contents of the bag. She couldn't think of anything they might have missed.
A last look around the rooms in the small cottage Dumbledore had provided for them didn't reveal anything amiss either - everything was in its place, including the hidden trunk with additional supplies. Just in case.
"Alright, let's go!"