A.N Sorry for the long wait, I've had little time and no inspiration for writing for a while, but I'm trying to update all of my stories now. I hope that you guys enjoy it and remember to review!

It all belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter Five Tea

Hermione leaned against the door, making sure that her back was pressed firmly against it. If her father decided to open it he wouldn't be able to. While she sat, ears pricked for any sound of footsteps heading her way, Hermione looked around her. It seemed that her memory charm had been so effective that not only had her mother forgotten her old life, but also her old tastes.

The corridor that she found herself in was full of bold, garish colours, something that Susan Granger would never have liked, but that apparently Monica Jenkins had no problem with. From where she sat, though, Hermione could see a small triangle of her parents' bedroom and this seemed like the only thing in the house that Susan would have liked. It was white, clinically so and reminded Hermione of a dental practice. Perhaps her mother's subconscious mind had been trying to tell her something?

Hermione jumped as she heard a sharp raised voice. It was definitely her father's, "Why can't I go to the bathroom Monica?"

"You just can't Bill...I mean Wendell," her mother's voice sounded panicked. Hermione bit her lip, much as she was enjoying listening to her parents' voices she needed to get out of here before Wendell decided to come on through. She hoped that if she disapparated the loud, popping noise would tell her mother that she had left.

"Let me go Monica!" There was a scuffle and then footsteps alerting Hermione to the fact that her father was coming. It was now or never, still drained from lifting the spell off her mother, Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated. She vanished with a loud pop just as the door swung open.

Bill jumped, "What was that?" he was all but shouting.

"Nothing, nothing," Susan tried to play it down, "Maybe a car backfired in the street...Look, Wendell, I think you're a little too stressed out at the moment, how about some tea?"

"I told you I'd have some tea after I'd gone to the bathroom!" and he stormed off to do just that.

Susan sighed as she wandered back to the kitchen slowly, she wondered where Hermione was now. It was all her fault, if she'd just been able to coax Bill into having his tea before he went to the bathroom then Hermione would never have had to leave. Bill would have been knocked out by now and Hermione could have lifted the memory charm.

She stirred her tea absently, looking out the same window she had earlier that day. That was when she caught it, a glimpse of bushy hair. An odd sense of deja vu flooded her, but that was eclipsed by the happiness. So Hermione hadn't gone far at all. In fact her daughter was running up to the house right now.

"Alohomora!" a whispered charm at the door and then Hermione was inside.

Susan rushed over and hugged her before bundling her into the pantry. "Hide here till I tell you to come out," she instructed firmly.

"So you have a plan?"

Susan merely nodded and shut the door in her daughter's face. She then went back to the kitchen counter and picked up the two mugs of steaming hot tea she'd made earlier and carried them to the dining room. The drugs were in the one on the left hand side. She set it down on the far side of the fluoro blue tablecloth, where Bill tended to sit, with a little sound of disgust. What had she been thinking when she'd bought that?

She then carried her own mug to the other end of the table and took a sip before putting it down on the table. "Hey," Bill greeted her as he sat down. Susan merely nodded, she was too keyed up to speak.

"So this is the tea you've been raving on about is it?" said Bill as he took a long draught of the liquid and exhaled deeply.

"Yes," Susan said, relief flooding her the moment her husbands lips touched the rim. Everything was going to work out, she smiled, "Good isn't it?"

Bill didn't reply, he was too busy drinking, well actually gulping, down the tea. It seemed that he was determined to finish it all in one go. When he was done he drew his sleeve across his mouth, Susan winced at this, thinking that her husband of old would never have done that she drank some more of her own tea. "Mmmm sure is good Monica," Bill told her and she smiled, knowing that it wouldn't be long now till she'd have Bill back. Only a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Hermione sat in the closet twiddling her thumbs. She'd lit up her wand tip and was perusing the food labels out of pure boredom as she bit her nails and waited. That was when she heard it a loud thump, as of a body hitting the floor. Confused she jumped to her feet, hitting her head on the shelf above where she was sitting, "Ow," she said stupidly before she recovered herself.

This time she was more careful, sliding forward while still hunched over before pushing open the door. She knew that her mother had told her to stay in the cupboard until she said to come out, but that crash had sounded vaguely ominous and Hermione was sure that something had gone wrong. Once outside she stood up silently, determined to find out what was going on.