It took several minutes for the muted blue light to make sense when Hermione awoke the next morning. The events of the previous evening flooded back to her and she was suddenly wide awake. She pushed back the silky blue sheets of the bed, and dressed in a muggle summer dress. Gellert wouldn't approve but if he was going to "court" her he'd have to get used to her modern dress sense.
She deliberately left the robes in her beaded bag alone when she left, finding Gellert unsurprisingly already awake in the living area. She was pleasantly surprised to see that he had done the same, looking incredibly uncomfortable in a pair of swimming shorts and a t-shirt. He flicked his wand to make her a drink and they settled into the sumptuous breakfast that had been provided by the hotel.
Hermione's parents joined them half way through, granting her the opportunity to reintroduce them to pumpkin juice.
They then spent a leisurely morning exploring the ship and its surroundings. Gellert seemed to share none of her reservations about using his wand underwater; although it would probably take much more than a bit of salt to destroy the elder wand. He cast a spell that created ghostly figures of the old crew as they desperately tried to save their ship.
They watched it like a film as another ship hit the side of them, both crews shouting in different languages as they pulled apart. The bosun and his mates desperately tried to patch the hole, nailing doors, planks, tabletops to the gap. Stuffing sailcloth and hammocks into the gaps and packing in thick tar as the water level rose to their chests. Finally, as one of the nailed on doors imploded back into the ship under the pressure, the call to abandon ship came. The family swum up on deck to watch as the crew lowered life boats and rowed away.
A visiting shark finally broke the illusion, nosing between the jagged mast tops and snapping at a passing tuna. With their ship explored, they floated over the side and explored the reef. A passing steward took a photo of them posing next to the propeller of a huge steamer.
They checked out once their legs were exhausted from all the swimming and feeling very airy after the spell was lifted in the foyer, flooed back to the cafe. Gellert treated them all to a coffee and cake, then Hermione's parents became enraptured by the magical medicine section of the book shop as she selected several ancient runes texts to read when she arrived home.
They spent hours in the book shop, then Hermione's parents returned the favour by taking them around muggle Melbourne. They ate lunch in china town and visited the apple store, which sold computers that were unbelievably thin. She could only conclude that it was dark magic which kept him young that was what blew the fuse on all the models he touched. Eventually, the mystified shop manager asked them to leave, offering them a gift card as an apology.
A familiar ginger cat was waiting for them at the tram station outside the Granger household. Hermione swept him up into a hug, amazed that the cat had followed her orders to take care of her parents. He hissed and batted her in the face and Hermione dropped him with a cry. Crookshanks clawed at her bare legs, and twisted in circles.
Grindelwald drew his wand.
'Look, the lights are on.' He murmured, pushing the muggles gently behind him. Hermione drew hers too and took the now familiar position at his shoulder. They approached slowly and she felt a ripple of his magic scan the house for wards.
She quickly flicked her wand, casting notice-me-not charms on them and the house. It wouldn't do to start an international incident over some paranoia.
They crept slowly closer, Gellert kept scanning the house as they drew closer, ripples of his dark magic making her hair stand on end. Someone moved behind the lace privacy curtains, maybe alerted by that same tingling. Gellert signalled to her parents to take cover behind the trees in the park and Hermione continued up the path with him alone.
The irony of this situation stuck her randomly, she was less nervous approaching an unknown intruder than she had been reintroducing herself to her parents.
They had just climbed the stairs when bright flashes lit up the night; the door opened, yellow light flaring across the garden and almost simultaneously scarlet flashed, lighting up the street. Grindelwald's opponent fell with a dull thump as Hermione caught the wand. Almost without pause, Hermione turned and sent a series of bright lights into the sky, imitating fireworks. With the muggles distracted and looking up, there would be no police arriving as they dealt with the intruder.
They approached cautiously, wands out as Hermione's fireworks crackled and boomed above them. The house remained almost entirely silent and Crookshanks slipped between their legs to go inside.
The intruder was a gangly wizard wearing pristine dark robes. He lay in a heap on the floor, a fold of his robe thrown over his head to reveal a pair of expensive trousers in severe need of ironing. Whichever wizard had invaded her home clearly didn't know even basic household spells. Gellert levitated the arm that had been thrown up with the robe and pulled down the sleeve with his fingertips as if touching rubbish.
There was no dark mark, just smooth, pale skin interspersed with large freckles. Hermione grabbed the cloak and tore it down, exposing the face of her ex best friend. Even unconscious, he looked colder with a careful, tough blankness that the course beard exaggerated. His red hair was longer, a bleached blond chunk sweeping back from his forehead into the tail at the nape of his neck. His clothing was expensive but he wore the formal attire as badly as always, which was only emphasised by the crispness with which she had become accustomed to in the company of Gellert and the Malfoys.
Grindelwald's upper lip curled and he raised his wand. Hermione threw out her arm to stop the inevitable curse. She needed to know why Ron had come all the way to Australia, if he had actually intended harm upon her parents, she would be sure to act on the threats she had made last time they were face to face.