"Urm…hello?" stammered Hermione, wondering what on earth had happened.
"Is this the Granger residence?" asked one of the policemen.
Hermione nodded silently.
"Can we come in please?" asked the policeman. "We've got something to tell you."
"Oh, I hope everything's all right," said Hermione, letting out a nearly hysterical bark of laughter as she sensed it was anything but.
Gesturing for them to come, they followed her to the dining room and pulled out a seat after explaining that Professor Sprout was currently in the living room.
"Hermione Granger, right?" asked the officer.
"Yes," said Hermione, incredibly worried.
"We've got something to tell you," said the policeman, shuffling around, looking rather uncomfortable with the whole situation.
After a nudge, the other police officer started explaining – "It's bad news. Your parents were hit driving to their surgery. It was a quick death,"
Hermione could feel the tears sliding down her face already, and let out a small squeak of disbelief – "What!"
"I'm sorry, miss," said the policeman, patting her arm before they both rose and left.
Trying to comprehend the shock of what just happened, she somehow managed to stumble back to the living room. How on earth could she have messed up this badly?
Professor Sprout looked up and her expression turned to one of shock when she saw Hermione shaking and her tear stained face.
"Oh my, what happened?" asked Professor Sprout.
"Parents. Dead," were the only two words Hermione managed to choke out before collapsing into sobs.
Sinking into the depths of the huge poofy chair, she had absolutely no idea. Of anything…
-&-
Once she had calmed down, her sobbing had subsided slightly and her breathing had slowed down, Professor Sprout asked her what she was going to do.
"What do you mean?" mumbled Hermione, wiping away a tear.
"Well, you can't just stay here by yourself, the ministry won't like that,"
"Why?"
"Well, its just not proper. You'll find the wizarding world very different to the world you are used to,"
Hermione nodded, deep in thought. The death of her parents really hadn't affected her as much as she had thought that it would. Of course though, she wasn't any ordinary ten year old. Normally, she never saw her parents as they were constantly working, therefore, she didn't really know them at all. Often, she thought that she would sacrifice the great wealth and house she had to for her parents to spend more than a minute with her. Then, of course there was also the fact that she had already mourned her parents from a death eater attack in the original timeline.
"So, what's going to happen?" she asked.
"I don't know what will happen in the long term, but you can't be left alone for the night. I'll take you to Hogwarts, it's the summer holidays and you'll be going there soon anyway. If you can gather your things please," asked Professor Sprout in her normal kindly tone, with a sympathetic look.
Hermione turned away and walked up the stairs, collapsing on her bed and letting out the last of her sobs. She hadn't exactly done the best job of not changing anything so far, to say the least.
Realizing she would have to get her things together, she eventually stood up, grabbing a large empty suitcase from underneath her bed.
Grabbing clothes, toiletries, books and everything else essential, she threw them in a messy heap into the suitcase before closing it and dragging it down the grand staircase.
Professor Sprout raised her eyebrows at what Hermione was dragging behind her, it certainly was a strange looking trunk.
Walking over, she gave her a smile, "If you can just take my hand, we'll use a wizarding form of transport called Apparation to get to Hogwarts. You can't apparate directly into Hogwarts, so we'll be going to the nearby village. Then, we'll floo to my office,"
Hermione took Professor Sprout's hand in her free one, and felt a reassuring squeeze before the familiar feel of apparition…