Ch 75: Back to School
Hermione sat at the kitchen table sipping her tea watching the dawn creep into their back yard. She still read the muggle paper every day and was flipping through the international business section when a still-sleepy Hugo tottered down the stairs in his school uniform.
"Morning, sleepy head," said Hermione brightly.
He mumbled something that sounded like "mernin," which made her chuckle.
"Here, tea will help," she said as she got up to pour him a mug. After giving him the warm drink, she started to make him breakfast.
"Thanks," he managed as she placed the plate of toast, bacon and eggs in front of him.
As he picked at his food, Ron came into the kitchen. "Morning," he said as he snagged some of the breakfast Hermione had made.
"Sometimes I wonder how you two ever made it up and out of bed before I moved in," Hermione said shaking her head.
"It wasn't pretty, but I got to school anyway," Hugo admitted.
"I wasn't THAT bad," protested Ron.
As they chatted, an owl arrived.
"Oh I hope it's from Rose," squealed Hermione.
"It's only been a couple weeks, Mum," laughed Hugo.
"I miss her!" Hermione protested. "And when you're off there too next year, I will be just as excited to get owls from you."
"But aren't you going up in the next few days anyway?" Hugo asked.
"Well, yes, but I don't always get to see her. I try to let her have her privacy. But I just miss her."
"We all do," Hugo said, with Ron nodding along.
"What are you two up to today?" Hugo asked as he munched on his toast.
"Well, I am supposed to be at the Auror Academy for most of the day. Depending on what time I get out of there I may have time to swing by the shop for a few hours this afternoon, but I am not really sure yet. What about you, Hermione?"
"Well," she said with a large grin, "I'm actually going to a conference for philanthropic foundations today in London. I've been really looking forward to this. There will be different speakers there on things like legal structures, measuring outcomes and all sorts of interesting things, and I am hoping to meet some good contacts to help me learn more about how to set all of this up correctly."
"Is it a muggle thing or a magical thing?" Hugo mumbled with a mouth full of bacon.
"Chew and swallow, Hugo. Same as I say every day," Hermione replied in an exasperated voice. "But, to answer the question I think I heard in there, it is a muggle conference. The foundation will be set up to support both magical and muggle charities, so I need to understand both sides."
"Are there any other foundations out there that do both?" Ron asked.
"I don't know," Hermione admitted. "I am not totally sure how to find out, honestly."
"Well, if anyone has a wand at the conference today then you'll know," teased Hugo.
"Very helpful," she laughed as she tousled his hair. "Guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open. OK, I am off. You're going with Mrs. Rupesmith to the art center after school, right?"
Hugo nodded, and Ron chimed in, "Yup, and I am set to get him from there at 630."
"Brilliant. I'll meet you two gentlemen back here at 630 for dinner then," she said as she kissed them each and then headed to the car.
"Why doesn't she apparate?" Hugo asked.
"She hasn't learned yet," Ron said. "But, even when she does my guess is she'll still end up driving that barmy car places."
"Probably true," the boy nodded.
Hermione made her way into the conference center and found the room where the keynote speaker was set to begin shortly. She hadn't felt this energized about a conference in years, and found herself a good seat at a table near the front where she could see clearly and still had plenty of room to spread out and take notes. A few minutes before the presentation, a woman about her age bustled into the conference room.
"Is this seat saved for someone?" she asked hopefully.
"No, not at all. Help yourself," said Hermione as she shuffled her papers slightly over to make room. "I'm Hermione Granger. Actually, sorry, Hermione Granger-Weasley. I was recently married and am not quite used to the new last name yet."
"Oh, congratulations then Hermione Granger-Weasley! I am Allison Lancaster with the Tarragon Foundation. Pleased to meet you."
"Pleased to meet you as well," said Hermione brightly. "I am working with a family who is setting up a foundation, so I am relatively new to this side of the work. Previously I worked as a solicitor with refugees, but I am looking forward to learning a lot today."
"What foundation is it you are with?"
"Actually it is so new that it doesn't even have a name yet," laughed Hermione. "The family, and they want to remain anonymous, well they have asked me to set it up for them and then oversee it. So, I really still am at square one."
"That is so exciting. I am a solicitor by background as well," the woman said cheerfully. Soon they had fallen into comfortable chatter comparing experiences and talking about people they had each worked with over the years to see if they had any colleagues in common.
"Are there any particular books or resources you would recommend I check out?" asked Hermione.
"Yes. There have been several that have been invaluable, here why don't you give me your card and I'll email you a list."
"I would really appreciate that," said Hermione earnestly as she handed her contact information over.
"Actually, we should make a point of finding a day you could come to the foundation offices. You could spend time with others on the legal team, meet the other staff and ask any other logistical questions you might have."
"That would be brilliant!" said Hermione.
Ron was finishing up his work at The Academy when he felt his phone alert him of a text. He glanced at it, expecting to see something from Hermione, but was surprised to find a different number pop up on the screen. "Mr. Weasely - This is not urgent, but please call or come by my office when you have a moment. I have discovered some more information on Mrs. Carrington, but this time I believe it is very positive. –Matt Coppedge"
"Well fuck," muttered Ron under his breath. He then sent a quick letter by owl to George to let him know something had come up and he could no longer make it into the shop that afternoon. As soon as the owl flew off, he headed straight for Coppedge's office.
"Mr. Weasley," said Matt Coppedge, as he ran into him in the hallway outside his department. "I hadn't expected to see you so quickly."
"Please, call me Ron. And, well, after the bad news last time I spoke with you I am more than ready to hear something positive."
"I understand. I was quite concerned about you when you left my office." Coppedge said as they entered his office and shut the door.
"Yeah. I was too, honestly. But, it was more shock than anything else. Once I had some time to calm down a little I realized it didn't really change anything."
"Have you seen Mrs. Carrington since then?"
"Oh, yeah, of course. We see her at least once a week. I beat her at chess, and she beats me at cards. Funny little muggle lady. We didn't tell her, of course. Nor the kids. The only ones who know are me and Hermione, well – and Harry of course."
"I think that was probably the best possible decision. But, maybe what I have for you today could lead to things good enough to share down the road."
"What do you have?"
Coppedge handed him a stack of papers. "I might have found some leads on living family members."
"Really?" Ron asked excitedly.
"Well, emphasizing the might, then yeah, really."
"Brilliant. Ok. Show me."
Coppedge then spent the next fifteen minutes walking Ron through the documents showing how Mr. Carrington's younger sister did survive the blitz and the war. There were records of her marrying a young man after the war, but he died a few years later. But then it looked as if she re-married again and had three children, a boy and two girls. The boy died in a train accident in the 60s, but both girls survived, as he had not been able to find any death records for either. But, he noted that his police computer system did not allow for searches of marriage records from that long ago, so he was not sure if the women had married or taken new last names, or if they had any children. But, he hoped that Ron and Hermione might be able to use it as a jumping off point to do some more ancestry research to see what they could find.
"Wow, Matt, this is bloody fantastic work! I can't thank you enough. I know you had to have put in a lot of time to find all of this, and I am sure it was on top of your regular work. So, please know how much I really, really appreciate it."
"You are more than welcome, sir. As I said before, I and my family – well, we owe you many debts for all that you have done. I am relieved to have found some small way to thank you. And let me know if there is ever anything else I can help you with."
"Thanks so much. And, you are a policeman yourself. You know very well it is what we do, right?"
Coppedge simply smiled and nodded.
"Actually – can I ask you something unrelated?" Ron asked spontaneously.
"Of course."
"Well, you know I left field work as an auror. But I am working at The Academy now. Nothing immediate, but it might be interesting if we could spend some time brainstorming sometime about what the aurors can learn from the ways the muggle police work. Not just how we can help make sure cases that overlap are handled right, but maybe help us learn how to research things on the muggle side – learn from how you organize cases, that sort of thing."
Coppedge was clearly stunned at the suggestion and simply sat there with his mouth slightly ajar.
"If it is too much work, I understand," Ron said quickly.
"NO! No, that's not it at all," muttered Coppedge. "It's just….Well, I'm a squib. I am not sure how well aurors – even aurors in training – would take to looking at me as an expert on something."
"Well that's just fucked up then," said Ron with a lopsided smile. "I've been through a hell of a lot of shite in my day, and I'll be damned if people are still mucking about with who is better – magical, muggle, squib, half blood, muggle born, pure blood. Who gives a flying fuck if they are good hearted, hardworking and have good ideas?"
Coppedge just looked at him in a mixture of awe and disbelief. "Well, sir, I think I would love to work with you in any way I could be of assistance."
"There yeh go," smiled Ron. "Once I track down Mrs. Coppedge's long lost relatives I'll ring you up and we'll go to lunch one day. Alright?"
"Brilliant. Yes, sir. I'd like that very much."
Hermione was practically giddy as she pulled into her driveway after spending the day at the conference. She realized she was home early, too, which only added to the happiness.
"Hello?" she yelled as she came in through the front door, kicking off her heels.
"Hey! You're home early!" yelled Ron from the kitchen.
She headed towards his voice. "Yes, the conference got out a bit earlier than I thought it would, so I missed the rush hour traffic. I thought you'd still be at the shop. Everything ok?"
"Yes," he said grinning. "I actually ended up ditching the shop this afternoon because I got a text – a good one this time – from our favorite squib policeman."
"Really? What did he say?"
"Here, come look at everything I have on the table," he said as he poured them both a glass of wine. "He simply sent a text saying he thought he had some good news and I should come by. The short version – I went by and he gave me all this. Mr. Carrington's little sister absolutely survived the war, married several times and had multiple children, and she could still be alive for all I know. She had three children, two of which survived as well. Coppedge said his computer systems couldn't look up all the marriage records from those years, so that's where we will need to start. But we could actually find someone!"
"Oh my God!"
"Exactly!" he said excitedly.
"Hold on," she said as she ran out of the room, leaving a confused Ron staring after her. Shortly she was back with her laptop. "I can get into a lot of those marriage records and such. I still have access through my old job with Nicola as we often searched for distant relatives who might be able to help the refugees. Anyway, we might be able to figure this out!"
Hermione logged on remotely to the records system and began to search for the names Matt Coppedge had found. Ron was rather fascinated watching over her shoulder as she worked the system. She was totally engrossed in what she was doing, and he was amazed watching her fingers fly over the keyboard to make the words appear on the screen without even looking down. Periodically she would drag her finger across the little rectangle and move the flashing line, and then he would watch her chew on her bottom lip, or crease her eyes slightly as she tried to find something on the screen. Ron was grinning at her when she finally turned around and caught him staring at her.
"What?" she protested.
"Nothing," he said with a lopsided grin. "I just love watching you work. It's amazing."
"Me working on a laptop is amazing?" she scoffed.
"Well, yeah," he admitted. "You really have no idea. Rather cool to watch you make the words appear on the screen. Dad would go completely barmy. But what I really love is it's almost like I can see the thoughts crackling around you. Quite hot, actually."
She laughed. "Hot, huh? Now I have heard it all. If you think this is hot you should really come with me to work sometime. Or even to court."
"I'd actually love to see you in court sometime," he said. "But maybe I would have to swipe Harry's invisibility cloak so I wouldn't distract you," he added with wagging eyebrows.
"I wouldn't get distracted," she teased. "It's you with that problem I believe."
Before he could answer, they heard Hugo come in the front door.
"Hey buddy, we're in the kitchen," Ron yelled.
"How was art class?" Hermione asked.
"Wonderful as usual," said Hugo as he went to get a glass of water. "But those little kids have a lot of energy. Was I that busy when I was that age?"
"Oh absolutely," Hermione assured him. "Dennis would call me beside himself when you had gone through his entire weekend of activities in an hour."
Hugo smiled at this.
"Yeah, Fi would tell me stories too," said Ron smiling. "One time – just after your fourth or fifth birthday I think. You had been given all of these craft kits, and your mummy had put them up in that cabinet over there. You had snuck down here after everyone was asleep and somehow used accidental magic to get them all down. By the time Fi came down for breakfast, she found you sleeping on the kitchen floor, covered in glitter, surrounded by playdough and having painted the table I think."
Hugo and Hermione were laughing hysterically.
"Oh my God," she gasped. "That was just after your fourth birthday. I was the idiot who gave you the playdough, which you promptly shoved into your ears if I recall. And I remember Dennis telling me you had gotten into everything in one night. Of course I fussed at him for not putting it somewhere out of your reach. He must have been so annoyed he couldn't tell me the real story!" They were all laughing so hard, and Hermione was laughing so hard she was crying.
"Fi said that was your first sign of magic actually," Ron grinned. "Should have known it would have been mischievous and all about art."
"At least it didn't involve blackmail," Hugo said with a sly grin, and suddenly all three were bent over howling in laughter again.
After dinner, Ron and Hugo went to read together before Hugo went to bed while Hermione cleaned up the kitchen and then returned to her work on the computer. She was taking notes and muttering at the computer when Ron came back down, standing quietly in the doorway to watch her work. She had muggle pens stuck into her curls in an attempt to keep them out of her way, but they weren't really working, so every now and then she blew one of the curls out of her eyes. She was jotting down notes on a pad of paper when she saw him out of the corner of her eye.
"How long have you been standing there?" she asked with a smirk.
"A bit," he confessed as he walked the rest of the way into the kitchen. "Told you I like watching you work."
She shook her head, still not seeing the attraction but smiled when he best down to kiss her forehead as he gently massaged her shoulders and neck.
"Care to tell me what you found? Or even better – care to explain what you're doing and how you're doing it?"
"Well, I guess so," she said. "But I can't really see when muggle ancestral research is going to be a skill you'll need much in the future."
"Probably not," he conceded. "But it's interesting. We probably won't need to know Polynesian magical history either, but we went to all those museums anyway."
"Huh," she said. "You are absolutely right. Sorry – I shouldn't have been so snippy. I just forget sometimes that the muggle world could be as new and interesting to you as the magical world is to me."
"Well, let's not get too carried away. It's me we're talking about – not my dad. But, I do find it interesting. I did do a lot of this kind of this thing – well, the magical version anyway – in my auror work. So, I kind of like to understand another way to do it. And then – there is the whole 'my wife is a bloody fit genius' thing too."
She gave him a playful smack on the arm. "You really want to know?"
"Yeah," he said eagerly as he pulled a chair up next to her.
"OK," she said taking a deep breath a launching into a patient explanation of what she was doing. He asked a lot of questions, but she could tell he was getting the basic concepts of how the remote database worked. Once she had explained what she was looking for and how she was keeping track of what she found, they soon discovered a method where they could work together to speed up the process. She called out to him the various names and dates and items to look up, and he kept track on their paper notes while she continued to search the online resources. Before they knew it, it was already midnight.
"Blimey," Ron said glancing at his watch. "I think we both need to call it a night. But I am now officially hooked on this, so can we regroup on it tomorrow?"
"Definitely," Hermione yawned, stretching out her back. "Once we make it through a few more sections, I think we'll be at a point where we could go to the different muggle court houses and churches to see if we can find the original birth certificates, marriage certificates and such."
"This is fun," Ron grinned. "Promise we can go do those things together?"
"Promise," she said as she kissed his cheek. "But I am so tired right now, I have got to go to bed."
"Want me to carry you up?"
"Oh no, because that pretty much never ends in sleep," she laughed. "And I need sleep."
(A/N: Please send me your reviews as they are great encouragement when I am stuck on something. I also got my first negative review recently…kind of made me feel like a "real" fanfic author now. Like some sort of hazing ritual I suppose. Anyway – if you have read this far and aren't happy with my story – all I can say is you really don't have to keep reading!
Also - I wanted to let everyone know that it will probably be a while before I post again. I found that I was rushing chapters to try and get them up and then I wasn't as pleased with the outcome. So, I want to completely finish the story to be sure that everything connects and ties the way I need it to in the end. Thank you for your patience as I complete everything. I promise I will finish it. There are two more main story arcs that I have and want to be sure all links together well. I have enjoyed this story so much, and put so much time and energy into it, that I don't want to rush it at the end. Thanks for understanding my delay…carrytheotter)
