Chapter 6


James was pacing in the living room. Hermione tried copying him, fumbling and stumbling along the way, but soon she got tired and gave up; preferring to observe him.

The cause of his anxiety was the impending meeting with Dumbledore at 12 noon. Remus was out of the house to meet his store-keeper and Sirius had gone back to his home to get some of his belongings.

James was at home, with nothing to quell his anxiety. Hermione was watching him as one watches a tennis match. Finally, he flopped down on the sofa beside her.

"You know the best way to deal with stress?" he asked Hermione.

Hermione looked up at him and blinked in response.

"Well," James started, "When it's extreme stress, it's firewhiskey."

"Fywheezy," Hermione tried repeating.

"Yes," James continued, "When it's mild, it's pacing. So long pacing hasn't helped me, so I think mine is moderate stress."

"Fywheezy," Hermione said and clapped.

"No, no," James shook his head, "That's for extreme stress."

"Steem stess," Hermione frowned.

"Yes," James said as he stood up, picking Hermione as well. "For moderate one, it's either chocolate or ice-cream."

James looked around the kitchen, trying to remember where the above mentioned things could be. He tried few drawers, but no success.

"The way Remus protects his chocolates, I would be lucky to even have a look at them. No, no, let me try finding ice-cream."

Talking to himself, James kept looking for ice-cream. Five minutes later he merged out winner with a Various Flavour Ice-Cream container.

"Yay!" he punched the air in jubilation, Hermione copying the action.

"Alright, Devil," James said placing the container and two spoons on the table in front of Hermione. "Time to eat."

He handed Hermione a spoon and opened the container. "Choose your pick."

Hermione, however, didn't make any movement. She continued to stare at various flavoured ice-creams.

"What?" James asked, "Harry would have created a ruckus by now."

"Iy-ceem?" Hermione frowned and looked up at James questioningly.

"Never had one??" James asked, shocked. "No doubt your teeth are so… erm… clean." He muttered.

And thus began Hermione's 'Iy-ceem' lessons.

"See this brown one; this is chocolate ice-cream – Remus' favourite.

"This pink coloured one is strawberry – Sirius' favourite.

"This yellow one is mango – Harry's and Lily's favourite and Moony's second favourite.

"And this," here James dug his spoon in the ice-cream, "is Vanilla – my favourite."

He put the spoon in his mouth and closed his eyes in bliss. "Vanilla is white and vanilla is yummm…"


At precise 12, fireplace in Lupin house blazed green and out came, in bright purple robes, with twinkling eyes and a smile on his face, Albus Dumbledore.

"Good afternoon, James, Remus."

The two men nodded at him. Remus offered Dumbledore a seat while James yell-called Sirius.

Dumbledore had hardly taken his seat when James blurted his question. "What do you want to talk about, Sir?"

Remus chided James with a glance. James and his impatience!

"How many times have I asked you to call me Albus, James?" Dumbledore said. "You are not a student of mine, anymore."

Remus and James shared a wary glance between them. Dumbledore had avoided the question.

Just then Sirius entered the room, Hermione settled on his hip. "Hello, Professor." He took a seat beside James on the floor.

"It's Albus, Sirius," Dumbledore said as he moved himself to the ground. "Hello to you." Moving closer to Hermione, Dumbledore greeted the young girl. "Hello to you too, little one. I am Albus Dumbledore."

"Bus Dumb'door," Hermione tried saying the difficult name.

The marauders stifled their laugh while Dumbledore looked amused. "You better call me 'Grandpa'. That might be easier for you."

"Gampa," Hermione said as she got up from Sirius' lap, crawled to Dumbledore and settled herself in his lap.

Hermione secure in his lap, Dumbledore directed his attention to the three marauders.

"Moody has gathered information on Hermione's family. She lived in London and her parents were dentists. Dentists are like Healers who work specifically on teeth."

James muttered under his breath, something about clean teeth.

"Unfortunately there is no one alive in her family anymore to take care of her. Her neighbours and colleagues have been informed of Granger's accident. They have also been informed that Hermione is currently safe with the family that saved her and might adopt her."

"We will adopt her," James immediately cut-in, Sirius and Remus nodding vigorously.

"Very well then," Dumbledore said and took out a small box from his robes. "This contains all the important documents and photographs we found in Granger household. You also need to decide what shall be done with her house and whatever property, movable and immovable, she owns. My suggestion is to put her house on lease till she is of age and let her decide on her own."

Three solemn faces nodded at Dumbledore's suggestion. Hermione had distracted herself with the small box Dumbledore had placed on the floor.

"Now, are you three sure you want to adopt Hermione Granger?" Dumbledore asked the three men.

They nodded vigorously and Remus was about to say something when Dumbledore stopped him.

"You need to think of this decision seriously," Dumbledore said in a solemn voice. "Hermione is a Muggle; she belongs to a different world than ours. Even if I assume you three are skilled in baby-care, there are many other issues to be thought of. Who will adopt her, for one; where will you live, what will happen to her in case of your marriages? You need to discuss all these issues."

The expressions on Remus' and Sirius' faces revealed that they hadn't thought of all this. James' face showed only determination.

"I'll adopt her," he said firmly, "I am never going to marry again, so that is not a problem. We all can live together; otherwise I will soon get a house built for us. I will even live in Muggle London if required."

"If that's what you want to do," Dumbledore said, "I will explain you the process of adoption. You need to adopt her in both the worlds. Muggle world will be taken care of; that won't be a problem. However, you will have to be prepared for a hearing in front of Wizenagamot as to why you want to adopt a Muggle girl. Then, there are various papers …"

Remus nudged James in-between the description. James ignored him. This was important and he didn't want to miss a single detail and face the consequences. But when the nudge persisted, he turned to Remus in annoyance. Remus nodded his head slightly in Hermione's direction.

To James' great horror, Hermione, seated in Dumbledore's lap, was trying to put Dumbledore's beard in her small mouth. Seeing that it was long, Dumbledore hadn't as yet noticed this.

Not knowing what to do, James kept staring at Hermione. A bark like laughter broke his reverie. Sirius was laughing and Dumbledore was watching Hermione with amused expression.

"What are you doing, little one?" he asked Hermione, prying his beard out of her little hands.

Hermione looked up at him and innocently answered. "Aniya is ite."

James slapped his forehead causing three pairs of eyes to look at him.

"Devil, Vanilla is white, but this isn't vanilla," he told Hermione as he moved to sit beside her.

"Ite," Hermione said stubbornly, showing handful of hair to James.

James looked helplessly around. Dumbledore smiled and made Hermione look up at him.

"Hermione, this is white, but not everything white is vanilla," Hermione looked confused. "Why don't you taste it?"

So, Hermione did what she was told and looked back at Dumbledore with a frown on her face. "Aniya no yummm."

Sirius was laughing so hard that he had tears in his eyes. Remus immediately got up and went to kitchen. When he came back, he had a bowl of vanilla ice-cream in his hand.

"Here, Devil," He handed her the bowl, "This is vanilla. And this is," he looked at James with a mischievous smile, "is yumm."

Hermione looked back and forth between white beard and white ice-cream. Finally, recognising the ice-cream, she took the cup and indulged herself in it.

"Aniya yummm," she copied James as she ate the ice-cream.

Dumbledore was smiling, Sirius was laughing, Remus was trying to control his laughter whereas James was red with embarrassment.

"I think I will leave," Dumbledore said, standing up and handing Hermione over to Remus. "I will owl you the documents required for adoption. You can contact me any time if you have any problem. Good day to everyone." A wink and Dumbledore was gone.

It was only then Remus gave in to his laughter and joined Sirius.

"Stop, you two, alright?" James ordered his friends, flopping on sofa. "She is a true devil."


A/N: Hello everyone. I am back. So, how was the chapter? You can criticise, i am open to all of it. Do you think the story is slow-paced? Or boring or something else? Let me know.

Help me. How do you want the Marauders to plan their arrangements with Hermione. I am open to suggestions. You want them to live together or as James suggested? Or maybe you want to see some other characters. That will kind of a challenge for me to write.

By the way, i generally answer all the reviews personally, but with change of place and a change in the website, i have not been able to reply to some reviews. I apologise and thank you all here. Your reviews and alerts mean a lot to me.

Do review. Thanks.

Ciao