A Sirius Situation
Chapter 16
Hermione at Bay
Author: Jelsemium
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, JK Rowling does
Annie and Jack were on their way out when Charlie and Hermione arrived.
"Oh," Annie said in surprise. "Aren't you coming to the Vicar's brunch, Hermione?"
"Oh, yes," Hermione said. "I just forgot something."
"Oh, did I forget to pack your good blouse?" Annie said in dismay.
"No, no," Hermione said. "I just forgot that I'd packed a necklace."
Annie shook her head in disgust. "I didn't even think about jewelry," she said.
"Don't worry about it," Hermione said. "I don't usually wear jewelry, so I could have done without, but since Charlie was so obliging as to offer to drive me over, I thought I'd take him up on it."
"Ah, well, thank you, Charlie," Annie said. "You are a true gentleman."
"Thank you," Charlie said. "I try to live up to my Mum's expectations."
"Please be sure that the front door is locked when you leave," Jack said. "Everything else is locked up." He looked at his watch with a harried expression on his face. "We'd stay and chat, but we have to meet with the plumber before tea. There's another problem with the hot water in the kitchen." He sighed. "If things keep going this expensively wrong, we may just lose our investment."
"Don't worry," Charlie said. "I think you've just had a rough beginning. Things are bound to get better."
Jack gave him a wry smile. "I'd feel more reassured if the other owners hadn't had such wretched luck." He shook Charlie's hand and nodded at Hermione. "We'll see you in a few hours."
Hermione nodded. As soon as they were out of sight, they walked inside. Hermione said in a loud voice. "I'm going to take a quick shower before I change, Charlie. Now, you be a gentleman and amuse yourself outside."
Charlie sighed. "If you insist," he said. He walked to the back door, opened it, and then slammed it loudly. Of course, he stayed inside with Hermione's wand in his hand.
Hermione had permission to use Belinda's lighted make up mirror. So when she finished her shower, she sat in front of it, in her dressing gown, brushing her bushy brown hair. In her other hand, she held the Spirit Box like a book that she was reading.
The image that she saw in the mirror made her stomach churn and she was glad that she hadn't had any breakfast that morning. However, she just ignored it by pretending to be engrossed in her book. She also ignored the flickering lights and the sparks that flashed from Belinda's curling iron.
When she brought out her new electric toothbrush, she could almost feel the gremlin's excitement. She could see its leering face out of the corner of her eye, but she ignored it and plugged it in.
Holding the toothbrush delicately in her fingertips, she squirted toothpaste on the bristles, being careful not to get any on the handle. Then, steeling herself, she put the brush in her mouth.
It was difficult to brush her teeth while holding the brush so unnaturally, but she hadn't really expected to clean her teeth.
After a few seconds, the brush developed a sour taste, and she heard a soft snicker inside her mouth. Revolted even though she'd instigated orchestrated the attack, her first desire was to throw the brush across the room and throw up.
Fighting back her gag reflex, Hermione yanked the cord out of the toothbrush. Then she yanked the toothbrush out of her mouth. As she did so, the gremlin began to ooze out of the toothbrush, glaring and gnashing its teeth.
It stalked toward Hermione and stepped directly into the Spirit Gum on the handle.
Astonished when it found it couldn't move its paws, it looked down. That gave Hermione enough time to shove the toothbrush into the Spirit Box, gremlin side down (as Charlie had instructed her).
The gremlin eyes shot sparks and its oversized jaws snapped down, but only succeeded in cracking the toothbrush and gluing its mouth together.
Hermione slammed the Spirit Box shut, yanked the key out and squirted more spirit gum into the lock.
She began to relax, but the lock began to tremble.
She grabbed Charlie's wand, then realized this would probably take more experience than she had. So she scooped up the Spirit Box, bolted out of the bathroom and down to the kitchen where Charlie was waiting.
Hermione hurriedly handed him his wand and slammed the box down on the table. The lock was already beginning to come apart under the gremlin's furious assault.
Charlie's mouth thinned when he saw that the lock wasn't going to hold. He waved his wand and muttered a locking spell. Then he sealed the Spirit Box shut.
"That could have been disastrous," Hermione said. "I hadn't thought about the lock not holding."
"Obviously, neither had Uncle Badger," Charlie said grimly.
"Do we have to tell him?" Hermione asked.
"He can't go around selling defective boxes," Charlie said. "Wait…" he leaned closer. "Ah, false alarm."
"What?" Hermione asked.
"The lock is a trap," Charlie said. "Even if the gremlin had managed to break it, it couldn't have escaped." He turned the box over in his hands. "I think that the lock is designed to lure the gremlin into crawling into it. Then there's another layer under that…"
"Like one of those insectivorous plants," Hermione said. "The more the insect tries to get out, the deeper into trouble it gets." She stared unhappily at the Spirit Box.
"Hermione, the box won't kill the gremlin," Charlie said patiently. "Gremlins aren't really alive. They don't have metabolisms. They're just nasty, destructive emotions given a solid form."
Hermione sighed. "I know that," she said. "That doesn't make me feel better." She gave Charlie a sideways look. "There are a lot of wizards who will tell you that Muggles aren't really human, just because we're different."
Charlie thought that over for a few minutes. "Point taken," he conceded. "However, this Spirit Box won't actually harm the gremlin in any way. If you unlock it," he looked into the glue filled keyhole. "Well, if you could unlock it, the thing would just crawl out and attack the nearest moving object."
"Right," Hermione sighed. "Well, Belinda is safe, and I think my cousins' problems with the building are mostly a thing of the past."
Charlie nodded. "Any problems the gremlin caused will be easy enough to take care of," he said. "While you get ready, I'll go through and fix some of the most egregious of the gremlin damage. That way your cousins will only have to fix the normal wear and tear."
Hermione gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Charlie," she said. "You're an angel."
Charlie shook his head when she left. "Ron, you lucky dog, you," he muttered. He'd have to be nicer to his youngest brother. Who knew, maybe some of that "Lucky in Love" stuff would rub off on him.
Hermione's last day with her cousins passed quietly.
She sent a message with Uncle Badger's owl to let him know that everything had worked out. Charlie sent an owl to Ron, Ginny and his mother to assure them that all was well.
Bob and Geordie discovered that they were passionately interested in astronomy and had retreated to their room with a stack of books that Hermione had recommended.
Tanya took to writing long letters to one of the local boys she'd met at the tea.
Belinda just relaxed in the library, content in the knowledge that the Thing was no longer in her home.
"You're really not a bad sort," she told Hermione, who had her nose in a book.
"Why thank you, Belinda," Hermione said with almost no sarcasm. "I think I could learn to like you, too."
"There must be a book on the subject," Belinda teased.
Hermione grinned.
"I'm just glad you were able to find something in a book to tell you how to get rid of that thing," Belinda went on.
"Books are very useful tools," Hermione said. "They allow us to interact with people from every walk of life, no matter what language they spoke or when they lived."
Belinda cocked her head to think about that, and then she looked around the library where Hermione had ensconced herself. "I never thought about it that way," she said. "I always thought of books as being dead things."
She looked back down at Hermione and grinned. "Lucky for me, you're such a bookworm."
Hermione made a face at her, but smiled afterward.
"I mean, really," Belinda went on. "What could be swottier than reading history books for fun?" She had expected that to be a rhetorical question, but Hermione's smile broadened into a grin.
Then Hermione held up the book she was reading.
"Principia Mathematica? You're reading a Maths book for fun?" Belinda's voice went shrill.
Hermione looked fondly at her new book. "Why, yes, I believe I am."
Belinda shook her head. "All right, that has got to take the cake, there is just no way to get swottier…"
Hermione's grin almost split her face in half.
"You can?" Belinda asked, almost plaintively.
Hermione held the book so Belinda could see the pages and exclaimed happily: "It's in Latin!"
That was the last time Belinda ever tried to argue with Hermione.
Author's Note:
I deeply apologize for the delay in getting this story out. I really did not intend to take four years to write and post this! I've decided to do it in sections. I hope this section was worth the wait!