A Sirius Situation
Chapter 3: Hermione and Her Cousins
By Jelsemium
All recognizable characters are copyrighted by the wondrous, talented, J. K. Rowling who is going to give me one heck of a birthday present next year, as Book Six (AKA Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) is coming out ON MY BIRTHDAY!)
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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Again, my apologies for the delay in this chapter. Reality has been messing with (what's left of) my mind. The huge Database Project that I and my co-workers sweated over a year to implement and have sweated for the past two years to keep running smoothly… is going to be trashed. Yay.
All I wanted for Christmas is a shotgun, but Santa wouldn't go for that.
Enough whining, on to the story…
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Her parents meant well, Hermione reminded herself of that, firmly, several times a day. However, she could not for the life of her figure out why her parents thought that going on holiday with her mother's cousins was a good idea. Her mother's first cousins, Jake and Annie Hobhouse, had bought a bed and breakfast in the county of Cumbria, near the Scottish border. Annie had asked the Grangers to stay with them for a week or so. Hermione remembered the conversation clearly… it had actually amused her at the time.
"Your father and I already have business to deal with that week. Much as we'd like to spend time with my cousins, we can only go up for the weekend. If you really don't want to stay longer, Hermione, that will be fine with us. I know you never did have much in common with Bob and Belinda. And I expect you have even less than before you started in Hogwarts. But I think you should spend some time with your cousins. We don't have a very big family you know. And I think that it will do you some good to interact with…" Emma Granger caught herself before she said the Dreaded Words.
"Normal children?" Hermione asked dryly.
"Something like that," Emma admitted.
"Normal as opposed to what?"
"Well, with children who aren't in trouble quite so much," Emma said. "You know that Harry and Ron are dears, but they are…"
"Mischief makers?" Hermione asked.
"Well…" Emma hesitated.
"Trouble prone?" Hermione suggested next.
"No, that's not quite…"
"Danger magnets?" Hermione tried to hide her smile, but wasn't quite successful.
"Well, I wasn't going to bring that up…"
"Sanity challenged?"
"You would know better than…"
"They're boys," Hermione said decisively. She gave a few coughs in her attempt to not laugh.
" 'Adventuresome' was the word I was looking for," Emma finally managed to get in edgewise. "Besides, your cousin Bob is a boy… last I heard. You only have to put up with them for a week, ten days, tops. I'm sure you're mature enough that you can get along with them for that short a time. Besides, you might surprise yourself by learning to like them."
"I doubt that," Hermione said.
"You didn't like Ron and Harry when you first met them," her mother reminded her.
Hermione sighed. She never could resist a challenge. And being 'mature' around her cousins, Bob and Belinda Hobhouse and their friends, Geordie and Tanya Blunt, was definitely a challenge.
Belinda and Tanya were the Muggle equivalent of Lavender and Parvati. Only they lacked Lavender and Parvati's looks, intelligence and common sense. (Yes, Hermione had finally met girls with less common sense than her roommates. Life, as they say, is full of surprises.)
Bob was forever trying to talk with a "Cockney" accent, which oddly enough made him sound more like an American than someone who had been born within the sound of Bow Bells. Geordie Blunt was just an ordinary, nasty teen age boy, not unlike the Slytherins, or even Ron on a bad day.
(It was people like her cousins and the Blunts that made her understand the joy… or at least the temptation… of Muggle-baiting.)
Fortunately, the bed-and-breakfast near Hel's Forge that the Hobhouses had bought was more than large enough for the four adults and five teens that had descended on it. The building had originally been a priory, but it had been abandoned in the late 1800's. In the 1980's, someone had the bright idea of fixing it up and using it to rake in some tourist money. Considering that the Hobhouses had picked it up for peanuts, the Grangers suspected that it hadn't been raking in much.
Hermione didn't understand why business wasn't better. The Priory was in a picturesque setting, amid rolling hills and bubbling streams. The house itself had been modernized just enough to be comfortable without losing any of its rustic charm. There was an excellent golf course less than an hour's drive. The village of Hel's Forge was over a gentle hill and across a small river. In good weather, it was a pleasant hike of an hour or so.
Of course, the constant repair work that the Priory needed may have had something to do with its lack of income. The building was sturdy enough, but some of the renovations, like the electric generator and the plumbing, were constantly breaking down. The rooms, fortunately, came equipped with fireplaces and duvets as well as central heating and electric blankets. Even though the nights were chilly, nobody was uncomfortably cold.
Hermione and her cousins managed to be civil while their parents were around. The first walk to Hel's Forge for tea went off without a hitch. Hermione wanted to explore the older section of the town, but was out-voted in favor of the modern tea shop. She wasn't too upset. She'd have a whole week to explore on her own.
However, as luck would have it, the weather turned foul. Instead of the lovely picnics next to gentle streams and invigorating hikes that they'd been promised, the five teens found themselves penned up in an old fashioned priory with each other. Mr. and Mrs. Hobhouse were pre-occupied with renovations and repairs. Unfortunately, the modernizations did not yet include television, and the radio reception was spotty during the best of weather conditions, that meant the teens were left to their own devices.
The other four teens tried baiting Hermione, to see if they could make her more miserable than they were. However, she found it easy to ignore them as they couldn't measure up to the Weasley twins in alarming pranks, the Slytherins for sheer nastiness, or even Ron for completely annoying behavior.
What made it even harder to get under Hermione's skin was her general good mood, as she was actually enjoying herself. The Old Priory had an excellent library and, considering the weather and lack of other occupations, no one was nagging at her to get her nose out of said books.
No one besides her cousins and their friends, that is. They could not find a better way to pass the time than to harass her when they weren't playing Truth or Dare. Occasionally, they tried to drag Hermione into the game. Hermione wasn't clear on what the game entailed, but was entirely certain she wanted no part of something that sounded like an excuse to humiliate people.
On the morning of the third day, Hermione began to feel a little sorry for the other teens. They were bored. So she decided to see if she could get on their good side by making something different for tea.
She had done well in Potions, in spite of Snape. She should be able to fix something on the old fashioned stove that was in the kitchen. She'd spent a few hours poking around in the kitchen and was fairly certain that she could make a passable tea. She was sitting at the table looking up something simple to make, when her cousins decided to put in an appearance.
"Oh, there's Hermione, with her nose in a book!" sang out Geordie, as if he'd said something witty. He brushed back his long, blond hair. He fancied himself a lady-killer. He reminded Hermione of Gilderoy Lockhart… only not as good looking, nor as intelligent.
Her cousin Bob, chimed in with, "Show Cousin Hermione a pile o' books and she's happy as a clam, ain't that right, ducks?" Hermione's dark haired cousin was actually not too bad looking. At least, he wouldn't be if he weren't constantly sneering at everybody.
Hermione couldn't figure out what he had to sneer about. He'd never done well in school, and if Belinda and Tanya were to be believed, he had no luck with girls, either.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Why, yes, Cousin Robert, I find books to be very entertaining. Maybe if you tried reading a bit, you wouldn't be so bored… or so boring."
Bob put his hands over his heart and feigned a swoon of agony. "You've broken me heart, ducks!"
"I doubt that you had one to begin with," Hermione replied. She turned her attention back to the herbal that she'd found tucked between two more modern cookbooks.
"What'cha readin'," Tanya drawled in what she fondly imagined was a sultry voice. She fiddled with her blond hair. If Hermione had been cattier, she'd have bet that the hair color had come from a bottle instead of Tanya's head. (Which was a surprise, Tanya's brother was a blond. He must have inherited the blond genes. Tanya obviously inherited the family brains, such as they were. But Hermione was not going to be catty and think those sort of things.)
"It's an herbal," Hermione replied calmly, flipping through the pages. "I found it in the library."
"A what?" Tanya asked.
"A book about herbs, luv," Bob said patiently. "Plannin' on makin' a spot of tea, then?"
"That, too," Hermione admitted. "There are some interesting puddings in here, too. I thought I might try an apple fool."
"An April Fool?" sniggered Tanya.
"An Apple Fool," Hermione said calmly. "It's a lot like apple sauce All it takes is apples, lemon, cinnamon and custard. I think I can handle that."
She noticed that Belinda was staying uncharacteristically quiet, and wondered why. Her unspoken question was answered a few minutes later.
"So, Cousin Hermione, tell me, are there any books in the library about… ghosts?"
Hermione raised an eyebrow as Belinda flushed angrily and the other three teens snickered.
Hermione wondered if the other three had been playing pranks. Belinda was pretty and she was usually impeccably groomed. (Belinda would get along with Lavender and Parvati, Hermione thought.) However, today, Belinda's dark hair was pulled back in a hasty pony tail. And, unless Hermione's eyes were going, Belinda hadn't put on any makeup. It didn't even look like she was wearing lipstick.
"Oh, tell her about the ghost you saw last night, Bellie!" Bob chortled.
"Shut up, Bob," Belinda hissed.
Hermione felt a surge of sympathy for her.
"Dear Hermione, you can tell her about the history of the ghosts here, can't you?" Tanya sniggered. Her overly made up eyelashes fluttered. Hermione spared a moment to wonder why her lashes didn't glue themselves shut. Then she shunted that thought away. That's the sort of thing that led to involuntary magic. She didn't want to get a warning owl at all, but in front of her Muggle cousins… well, things could get ugly.
The other four teens were watching her. Three clearly with the eager expectation that she would back them up and join them in taunting Belinda. Belinda was watching her with resignation. Even if Hermione hadn't known any supernatural creatures, she'd been on the receiving end of this sort of torment too often to join in on it. (Even if she did have the occasional daydream about Muggle baiting.)
Besides, it went against her scholarly nature not to lecture when she had the chance. "I have found some books dealing with the history of this priory," Hermione said. "But no, none of them had any information about any supernatural entities haunting the premises. I can do some more research if you think this building is haunted."
She paused and frowned. "I believe that the previous owner is required by law to disclose if this building has a history of any paranormal activities."
Belinda was startled, and rather gratified. The other three looked at Hermione liked she'd spouted an extra head. Maybe a little Muggle-baiting wouldn't be so far out of line…?
"You don't believe in ghosts, do you?" Bob blurted, dropping his wretched attempts at a Cockney accent. "I mean, that batty old codger that Mum and Dad bought this place from had to knock the price down because he said there were ghosts, but that's all just nonsense, innit?"
"Well, most of the recent books are rather unconvincing," Hermione said. ("Recent meaning Muggle," she added to herself.) "However, it's very difficult to prove a negative."
"Huh?" Geordie said.
"That was perfectly clear English, Mr. Blunt," Hermione said in clipped tones that reminded her of Prof. McGonagall. It must have reminded the other four of somebody, because they unconsciously straightened up. "It's difficult to prove a negative. For example, if you want to prove that there are numbers divisible by five, you only need to find one example of a number that can be divided by five. However, if you want to prove that there are no numbers divisible by five, you have to show that every single number that exists cannot be divided by five."
"But there are lots of numbers divisible by five," Geordie protested.
(Where were the Weasley twins when you needed them? Muggle baiting was not only looking acceptable, but quite attractive!)
"That was just an example," Belinda snapped. "In other words, in order to prove that there are no ghosts, you would have to investigate every ghost sighting in history and prove that it was a mistake or a hoax."
"Exactly," Hermione said. She restrained herself from adding "full marks."
"Oh," Geordie said. "So, do you believe in ghosts?"
Hermione wished she had some spectacles to look over. That always lent authority to Professor McGonagall's dirty looks. "I've seen… bizarre things at the school I go to," she admitted.
She wondered what the others would think if she mentioned Nearly Headless Nick, the Bloody Baron, the Fat Friar or Peeves. She decided not to find out. Being friends with Harry Potter had given her a thorough understanding of what it felt like to be thought insane.
"Is that a yes or a no?" Belinda asked. She looked ready to burst into tears.
"Until there's absolute proof either way, I'm keeping my mind open," Hermione said after thinking a moment.
Bob threw his hands in the air. "I knew she was barmy." He headed off, with Tanya and Geordie in tow.
Geordie was protesting. "She's such a swot, maybe there's something to this ghost business…"
"Oh, don't be such an idiot, Geordie," Tanya said.
The arguing faded away, and ended as a door slammed somewhere.
Belinda made a wry face. "Thank you for that," she said.
"You're welcome," Hermione made a wry face of her own. "I know what it feels like to be teased."
Belinda sighed. "Touché," she admitted. "I'm sorry now that I ever teased anybody."
"Well, a little teasing is okay," Hermione said. "Just… tone it down a bit, okay?" She got up and began to prepare the ingredients for the Apple Fool.
"Deal," Belinda said. She wandered around fingering the furniture and watching Hermione work. "So, Cousin, are there any books here that can explain what has been happening?"
"I don't know," Hermione said. "What happened to make you think of ghosts?"
Belinda sighed. "A lot of little things. One, my curling wand keeps disappearing and reappearing in strange places, like the top of the wardrobe, or in a vase, or under my bed…"
"Oh."
"Naturally, I suspected my brother and his pet baboon… I mean, his very good friend, Geordie."
Hermione snickered.
"Have you noticed that the stupid radios only pick up on one station? The local one where the people do nothing but talk about land use and taxes?"
Hermione frowned. "I was listening to a classical station last night. Granted the reception wasn't very good."
"Well, maybe they had something new," Belinda sighed. "My parents took mine so they could listen in on the local gossip. They couldn't get their radio to work at all. You know the reason we don't have a telly here is because there isn't any reception… but the teashop in Hel's Forge had a telly!"
Hermione shook her head. "Reception can be a funny thing," she said. But she was already comparing the problems with electrical devices at the priory with the problems with electrical devices as Hogwarts. Magic did funny things to electronic devices.
"Yes, well, all that can be explained away, but … I have a lighted make up mirror, and I keep seeing… things in it," Belinda looked ready to burst into tears.
"Things? Like what?" Hermione asked. Her brow crinkled and a worried look came into her eyes.
Apparently, Belinda was reassured when Hermione didn't start laughing.
"I keep seeing someone behind me," she said with a shudder. His mouth moves but no sound comes out. When I look over my shoulder, there's nobody there." She gave a sniff and tears began to form in her eyes. "I can make out some of what he says… and the fact that he makes gestures to illustrate his meaning…" she swallowed hard.
Hermione's eyes went wide. She'd read stories where things like that had happened. "You called it a 'he?'" she said in questioning tones.
Belinda scowled. "I've seen him in the mirror. No clothes and quite a big… well, quite obviously male."
"Has it ever touched you?"
Belinda shook her head. "No, but last night… I was taking a bath when my hair dryer came sailing across the room and landed in the water! Naturally, I screamed." She dabbed at her eyes and Hermione handed her a handkerchief.
Hermione patted her on the back. "There, there," she said. "What happened after you screamed, then?"
Belinda blushed. "The others came running, but they didn't see anything but me in my robe. The hair dryer was on the sink, completely dry. They thought I was having them on… or having a dream." She took a deep breath. "The worst was this morning, before dawn. I was in bed and something…" she took another deep breath. "Something tried to drag me out of bed! I couldn't move, I couldn't make a sound, but there was this horrible snorting… right in my ear! And I just knew that if I got pulled off the bed that something horrible would happened."
"Have you told your parents?" Hermione asked.
"They won't believe me," Belinda said wearily. A few more tears crept down her cheek. "They were told that the Priory is reputed to be haunted, but they didn't believe the land agent. They agree with Bob that the supernatural is all rubbish. I used to think so, too. Until… until… Hermione, I think it meant… I think this thing wants to rape me."
A clump of ice seemed to form in Hermione's stomach. If the Priory was haunted, that would explain a lot of things about it. And if this was a hostile spirit rather than some poor, forlorn ghost, then Belinda could very well be in danger. Obviously somebody had to do something. She could probably get help from Professor Dumbledore or the Weasleys. However, she needed more information about what threat they were facing.
"Belinda, do you own a crucifix?" Hermione asked. She flipped through the herbal as she spoke. This book was old enough to have useful information about the use of herbs to fend off nasty spirits.
Belinda shook her head. "But Mum was talking about taking us to the village for a bit of shopping today," she said. "You know, to make up for us being cooped up all the time. There were some nice jewelry shops, so I can get one there."
"Excellent," Hermione said. "Find a plain gold one, the older the better. I'm sure there are some antique shops. While you're doing that, I can do some more research. If this Priory is haunted, then somebody will know more about what's going on."
"Do you think there really is a ghost here?" Belinda asked.
"Maybe. I'd wondered why this priory hasn't done better as a bed and breakfast. It's in a nice setting, the prices are reasonable. Come to think of it, the fact that this property was abandoned for so long is highly suspicious. I might be able to find more information in the village."
"Hermione, you're a life saver," Belinda threw her arms around her and gave her a warm hug.
"Pity Ron never reacts like that when I help him," Hermione thought. She knew he liked her, but sometimes… well, a little appreciation would be nice.
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Author's Notes:
You people are da bomb! Seriously! You (yes, YOU) are the reason I finally managed to push through the Shock of Order of the Phoenix and start writing again. Thanks!
Nimbirosa – Good point. I'm changing the last line of this chapter now.
Wren Truesong -- Thanks for the lovely, lovely reviews of A Harry Situation! I'm so thrilled that you took the time to say what you liked best! (Happy belated birthday!) I should check over at Sugar Quill to see if the chapters ever got set up properly. Thanks, but I actually won at NaNoWriMo for number of words rather than content. :)
everpresent -- Thanks for reviewing! I'm sorry if some chapters are too short. Some chapters have just too good a punch line to resist.
Andrea13 -- Don't die, you'll miss the really GOOD chapters! Glad you like my version of Sirius!
Wren Truesong -- Thanks again! I'm glad you like the idea that Lily's patent is still bringing Harry in some money. I have other ideas where his money is coming from. I may get them into a later chapter. I can just see Tonks saying "Wizard Chick." You QUOTE me? Wow, that's probably the most flattering thing you can do for a writer!
Malexandria -- Hi! Thanks for reviewing!
anonymous -- Yes, I'm in denial of Sirius being dead. And here's in my denial. I hope it lives up to your expectations!
michele -- Thanks! Nice to be back!
StarWest45 -- Thanks, glad you like the new story!
CrystalBlue -- Thanks for reviewing! I'll try to be good. I'll also try to be faster
Eris, Queen of Shadows -- Thanks for coming back! Sirius now belongs to the fans, I say. (Bwa-ha-ha!) Thanks for the kind words on the shaving cream dance.
Alla -- Nope, got more story.
Under the Old Oak Tree-- Thanks! Your review made me happy, too!
LileeAlina -- Thanks! Sirius was contemplating making Harry eat the shaving cream pie. Or at least a few bites. Doubt that he'd have actually done it, though. Padfoot isn't the only one who can make Puppy Eyes. PS, I fixed the error in Chapter One. You're right, I meant Madam Pomfrey, not Madam Pince.
Meg -- Thanks for reviewing! Yes, there will be elements from Order of the Phoenix. Members will be introduced. (Tonks is coming soon!) Umbridge (and Fudge) will show up, too. I've got PLANS for them. This story will be about families -- Harry and Sirius, Grangers, Weasleys, etc.
Fate -- Thanks! Hope the rest of the story is up to snuff!
DaBear -- Thanks for writing!
Satchel -- Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you liked A Harry Situation and I hope this is enjoyable, too! I'll try to be faster with the updates.
PS -- Eris, Everpresent -- I try not to repeat myself. The Hospitalized!Harry was last time's schtick. Have other PLANS for the boy this time.