Special thanks to my reviewer! You rock, chica!
Okay, so on with the story...I promise that this is a much longer chapter, and there's a plot that forms...
To the Moon and Back—Chapter 2
"So what do you recommend for this case?" asked a tall, Asian young man in a short white coat, holding a pen and clipboard at the ready. He looked at his teacher for advice: a pretty woman with sparkling brown eyes and very thick, wavy brown hair that was pulled out of her face in a clip for the moment.
"Step number one, Mr. Chen," Hermione Granger responded, picking up her stethoscope and slinging it around her neck. "This is our patient. He is a child with a family and a story, not simply an object of study." She paused and he looked at her expectantly, tapping his foot impatiently. "A little bit of gentimycin and bactroban ointment should clear up the impetigo within the week." Just then a plump nurse with shiny blond hair pulled into a bun called to her from the nurse's station.
"Dr. Granger, it's 3:10. You told me to remind you—" she was cut off by Hermione wincing as if she had sustained a blow to the abdomen.
"Crap, I forgot," she groaned. She dashed behind the desk and retrieved her purse, hastily signing out before turning to dash out the door.
"But what--?"
"I'm late! I need to pick up my kids at camp this afternoon." She dashed toward the car in the parking lot of the pediatric care office where she now worked as a muggle pediatrician. Hurriedly starting the car, she tore off her long, white coat and tossed it into the back seat before fastening her seatbelt and pulling out of the parking space.
She loved her job at the office, and though she missed many aspects of the world she had left behind, especially her best friends through school, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, she had grown to love her life here in the suburbs of muggle Boston, Massachusetts. She loved her house, her job, and especially her children. Hermione smiled at that memory.
She found out that she was pregnant with them shortly after she had come to Boston. She couldn't figure out at first how the pregnancy had happened; it was the last thing in the world that she had expected to happen to her. But duh, she thought to herself, of course you know how it happened; you were definitely there for the event.
It had been a fit of passion, a night of fear and of love; it had happened on the night before the final battle. The event in itself was a blur to her, a whirl of love and passion and desperation to hold on to each other for as long as they could. And in the end, two babies had been conceived.
When Harry didn't come back for her, she had gathered all of her money from Gringotts, packed a suitcase and caught the first flight to the United States, which happened to be destined for Boston. It was there that she'd given birth to beautiful, healthy twins; James Harry was born first, at 7 lbs even and Lily Anne was second at 6lbs, 14 ounces. Two healthy, vivacious children with cries to rival a mandrake.
Hermione began school again, achieving a University degree independent-study, then on a whim enrolling in medical school. After her four years of schooling was up and the twins no longer demanded quite so much of her time, she had found a nice place to build a new life. Lily and James grew up there in muggle school, not knowing anything about the magical world at all. Hermione had done this on purpose, not because she wanted to keep it from them, but because she wanted them to grow up as normally as possible. They would undoubtedly be receiving their acceptance letters into Hogwarts on their eleventh birthdays, which happened to be the very next day, and Hermione knew that she would have to tell them everything when the time came.
For now, though, she concentrated on the present as she pulled into the parking lot of the camp and parked the car. She made her way into the cool, air-conditioned reception hall of the camp mess hall and pulled off her sunglasses, eyes sweeping the room that was bustling with color and activity for a hint of her own kids. Then, out of nowhere, she was bombarded by what looked like two colorful, backpack-wearing and beaming 10-year-olds, both jumping up and down with excitement.
"Mom!" Lily squealed, hurling herself into Hermione's arms and nearly knocking off her own glasses in the process. Her thick, wavy chestnut hair flew behind her as she ran into her mother. Hermione held out her other arm so that she could hug her son James, a boy with untidy chestnut-brown hair and warm brown eyes.
"Hey, Mum," he said, hugging her back. They collected their duffel bags and dragged them out to the car, hoisting them into the trunk.
"How was it?" Hermione asked, adjusting the rearview mirror so that she could see Lily more clearly in the back seat (James sat in the front today). She pulled out of the parking lot and began the drive back to their house.
"Excellent!" they both exclaimed at once, beaming. And they began rambling on about the camp activities and events.
"But one of those things happened again, Mum," James said, suddenly looking slightly perplexed. Hermione looked up, frowning. By 'one of those things,' she knew that he meant accidental magic.
"What sort of thing?" she asked with interest, pulling into the driveway of their house.
"It was weird," Lily said, exchanging a look with her twin. "Like we made it happen, like the other things, but James didn't actually do anything at all."
"One of the boys, David Prochnow, was making fun of Lily's glasses," James explained, frowning slightly. "And I grabbed Lily's arm and started to drag her away, but then everyone was laughing, and we turned around and saw that his two front teeth were growing really fast, and they stopped when they got to his chin."
Hermione helped the two of them get their bags into the house, somewhat amused. She had, of course, not forgotten the time in the fourth year that the same thing had happened to her. Appalled, she turned to face the two of them.
"But what happened to him? Was he okay?" Lily shrugged.
"Of course he was, but he had to leave early to go to see a doctor to have his teeth shrunk again. Everybody looked very, very confused, but at least the other kids didn't think it was us." Hermione nodded, slowly.
"Okay, well I'm glad that there was no permanent damage. At least his teeth didn't keep growing."
"What, Mom?"
"Nothing," she said quickly, then, noting their sidelong glances at each other, added, "You two had better go and unpack your things. And I want you both to bathe before dinner tonight, and put something nice on," she called as they retreated up the stairs. Shaking her head, and with a slight grin on her face, she fixed herself a cup of tea and took a seat at the wooden kitchen table and began to read the Boston Globe.
Half an hour later, James knelt on the floor of his room, still removing the contents of his bright red duffel bag when he heard a knock on his door. Rat-a-tat-tat: Lily's knock, he knew. His mother's was three quick raps on the wood.
"Come on in, Lil," he called, not getting up off of the floor. Lily opened the door. She was already dressed for the evening in a pink skirt and white spaghetti strap shirt, and her wet hair hung flat down her back.
"Hey," she greeted him, entering the room and sitting Indian-style on his bed.
"Oh, good," he said, throwing a dirty pair of jeans into his hamper. "I can take my shower now, then." He turned and glanced at the look on his sister's face, which was one of mixed concern and perplexion. "What's up?" She was silent for a moment.
"Do you think that something's up with Mom?" she asked him, her brow furrowing. James shrugged, sitting on the edge of the bed and turning to face her.
"I dunno."
"It's just—it's just that she's been acting kind of funny. I mean,I think that most parents would freak if, say, you suddenly wound up at the top of a tree without knowing how you got there, or mysteriously caused another kid to have boils pop up on every inch of his skin, or make another kid's teeth to grow a foot out of his mouth. All of those things and more, and we didn't even get scolded, and you know how strict Mom can be about behavior." James nodded. Their mother was strict about their schoolwork, chores, and behavior. They were rarely punished, but Hermione had one mean guilt-invoking stare.
"I don't know, Lily," James told her honestly.
"It almost seems as if she—"
"—Knows something that we don't." Lily nodded.
"Yeah, I mean, I know it sounds silly, but maybe there's something wrong with us. Maybe we have a psychological disease!" she exclaimed, suddenly looking terrified. James rolled his eyes. Leave it to Lily to turn any problem into something medical; she loved anything to do with the subject and was eager to become a doctor when she got out of school.
"I seriously doubt it," he told her more confidently than he felt. "Mom would've taken us to a shrink or something by now. Actually," he said, frowning, "she would have done something." They both stared at each other, thinking for a moment. Then Lily started to get up and shrugged, as if hoping that the worry she had would fall off of her shoulders if she did.
"We can talk to her about it sometime," she said. "But not tonight or tomorrow, with the birthday stuff going on." She suddenly beamed. "We're gonna be 11!"
"Yep," he said, smiling as well. "Hey, why did Mom say that we're going out for our birthday dinner tonight? Don't we always have the dinner on our actual birthday?" Lily shrugged again.
"I dunno," she said, "but she said something about having something else planned for us tomorrow." Exchanging looks, James grabbed the khakis and bright red polo shirt he would be wearing that night and headed for the shower; Lily left her brother's room for her own neat, orderly bedroom, which had a bright yellow duffel bag sitting open on the bed. She sighed as she sat down and began to unpack her things.
Dinner that night was a fun affair out at a local restaurant in town. It was a celebration of the children's birthdays, and an evening of great food and lots of laughter. Halfway through large bowls of delectable chocolate mousse (Lily's and James' had candles stuck in the center), James laid down his spoon. This was a cause for surprise to both Hermione and Lily, as food was one of his favorite things.
"Mom," he said, addressing Hermione quite suddenly. "Why are we celebrating our birthday tonight? I mean, we aren't even eleven yet."
"Honey, I already told you that," Hermione said, a bite of mousse halfway to her mouth. "It'll be your eleventh birthday tomorrow, and your eleventh is a very special birthday. Something is already planned for tomorrow, and it might go into dinnertime, so I took you out tonight instead." James nodded, not entirely satisfied, as Lily shot him an I-told-you-so look.
It was after nine o'clock when Hermione pulled the car into the driveway of the house, and though it was summertime, she saw that Lily and James were ready to fall asleep. She ushered the two into the house and upstairs to their bedrooms, where they changed into their pajamas and called for her to tuck them into bed.
Hermione went into her son's bedroom first, and she was surprised to find that it was clean and neat, with all of the dirty camp clothes in the basket by the door. James was curled up in his bed, reading Tolkein's Lord of the Rings series in the light of his bedside lamp. She made her way over to him, sat on the edge of the bed, and took the book from him, examining it.
"Haven't you already read this whole series twice already?"
"Only four times," he said sheepishly. "It's a good series!" She laughed softly.
"It's okay to like to read, James," she told him, setting the book back on the nightstand and turning out the lamp. "I'm not going to try to stop you from reading, ever." She could see the outline of his face smiling at her in the dark.
"Thanks, Mom. Good night."
"Night, kiddo," she said, kissing his forehead and standing to leave the room. "I love you."
"I love you to." And with that, she closed the door, leaving it open a few centimeters, and turned across the hall to Lily's room. She was unsurprised to find her daughter sitting up against her pillows, also reading. Unlike her son, however, Lily didn't much like fantasy books; she was reading Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, and promptly looked up when her mother entered the room.
"Hey, sweetheart, time to go to bed?" Hermione asked. Lily nodded, setting the book on the nightstand and allowing her mother to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Thanks again for dinner," she said with a smile. "It was great." Hermione beamed, bending down to kiss Lily goodnight.
"Brush your teeth and wash your face?"
"Yep," Lily grinned to show as much of the surface of her teeth as she could.
"Good girl. I'm glad you had a good time at dinner. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
"Okay." Hermione turned to leave after stroking her daughter's cheek with her own thumb.
"I love you, Lily," she said, flipping off the lights.
"Love you too," came the voice through the dark.
It was going to be hard, Hermione knew as she walked the hallway back to her own bedroom. A wooden trunk sat at the foot of the bed—the trunk that she had used at school. She sat on the floor beside it and lay her head atop the smooth, polished oak. But she had to, for her children's sakes.
Suddenly, she stood and made her way over to her dresser. Maybe, she thought as she sifted through socks and things at the back of the drawer, it wouldn't be so difficult if she took a peek before hand. Her fingers closed around something smooth and familiar, and as she pulled out her arm, her wand was clutched in her right hand. Going back over to the trunk, she made sure that her door was closed before pointing her wand at the trunk and uttering the first spell that she had used in over eleven years.
"Alohomora," she said in a shaky voice. For a split second, she thought she'd lost her magic, but the lid sprang open and revealed the contents within. Kneeling and dropping her wand on the floor beside her, Hermione began to sift through things that she had once cherished and had not seen daylight for over a decade. Yet the photographs still smiled and waved up at her, and the robes were as black as ever. Swallowing hard, she grabbed the first book her hands would reach: her old-time favorite Hogwarts: A History. Closing and relocking the trunk, she curled up into her own bed, lifted the cover of the now-dusty volume, and began to read.
The combination of warm rays of sunlight falling across her face and happy laughter woke Hermione the next morning. Rubbing her eyes, she rolled over and was shocked to find that it was already 8:45 am. After a quick shower, she threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and hurried down the stairs.
Entering the sunlit kitchen, she saw that Lily and James were both sitting at the kitchen table and playing a board game. Both were still in their pajamas, and Lily's hair was up in a ponytail. Hermione smiled and greeted them, opening the refrigerator and taking out a container of blueberry pancake batter.
"Happy Birthday!" she said, beaming. "How long have you guys been up?"
"Since seven," Lily answered promptly while James moved a gamepiece several squares around the board.
"Do you want pancakes for breakfast?" The grins she received at the mention of food told her what she needed to know. Lily and James continued to play their ordinary muggle board game (the game of Life) without a second thought—although, she thought to herself, you've got to love a game where you can sell your kids for money. Not that she'd sell her own for anything in the world, of course.
Noon slowly crept closer and closer, and it seemed as though the twins were growing very impatient as to what it was they would be doing for the rest of the day. By eleven thirty, Hermione decided that if their letters didn't arrive that day, then she would take them to the pier amusement park. When she saw two owls flutter to her mailbox, however, she knew that she had no such luck. Her stomach gave a leap.
"James, Lily, the mail's here!" she called into the kitchen where they were playing a card game. Lily hastened to put the cards away and the two of them marched out into the bright sunlight of the warm July Saturday to collect the mail. It came as a shock to the two of them when they discovered that, among the rubbish bills and catalogs, were six letters, each addressed to Lily or James Granger.
"What the—"James started, but Lily shook her head.
"Let's go back inside," she said pointedly, and clutching the daily mail in his hand, James turned and followed his sister back into the kitchen, where their mother sat, looking nervous and clutching a mug of tea in her hands.
"Well?" she asked them with an interested expression on her face.
"We got mail," Lily said, separating hers and James' letters out from the junk and giving the rest to Hermione, whose face contorted into a bewildered expression when she saw that each child had three letters.
"A lot of weird-looking mail," James said, looking apprehensively at the envelopes.
"Let's open this one first," Lily said, pointing to a normal, business-sized envelope with a stamp and an official-looking seal at the return address. They tore open the envelopes and read the letters with an excited expression. Lily let out a shout of joy as she thrust the envelope at her mother:
Dear Miss Lily Granger,
Our staff is proud to announce your acceptance into the Chesapeake Academy …
Hermione was both stunned and pleased. Her children, especially Lily, had been hoping to get into the Chesapeake Academy for ages. It was an excellent New England secondary school with a wonderful reputation and state-of-the-art equipment. However, she hadn't expected that acceptance today, not when the twins were to find out that—
"I'm a wizard?" James asked quietly, mouth half-open. He was staring at the second letter, which had been written on peach-colored parchment with violet ink. Lily looked aghast, then tore her peach envelope open, too.
Dear Miss Granger,
Congratulations on your acceptance to the Salem Institute of Magic…
She looked up at Hermione, who smiled and nodded with a sadness to her face.
"You need to open the one with the green writing," she told them. She had forgotten about there being another magic school right here in Massachusetts; of course the twins would be accepted there. James tore it open the yellowed parchment envelope first, revealing a neat letter, written in emerald ink. He began to read.
Dear Mr. Granger,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
The term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st.
Sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall
Headmistress
James looked up at Lily to find that she had an identical expression of shock on her face. Questions began shooting off in his head, like firecrackers. His head seemed to be spinning so quickly he didn't know what to do, so it was lucky that Lily spoke first.
"What does it mean, that I'm a witch?" she asked her mother. Hermione smiled.
"It means that you can do magic, sweetheart."
"Like what?" Suddenly, James saw his mother do something strange. She pulled a long, thin bit of wood from the sleeve of her sweater and pointed it at nothing in particular.
"Wingardium leviosa," she said carelessly, flicking her wand at the cup of tea in front of her. Slowly, the cup began to rise straight into the air, hovering a foot above the table. Lowering the cup, she glanced at her children. Both were looking at her with frightened and amazed expressions on their faces.
"Wow," James whispered.
"That's impossible," Lily said in quiet amazement.
"It's very possible, and in fact very true." She paused for a moment, looking from one stunned face to the other. "I think it's time," she said, taking a deep breath, "that I show you something that I've been keeping from you for all these years."
That's all for now. What did you think?
Ten points are yours if you can tell me what the twins' reactions will be, and five if you can guess what Hermione gives them as a birthday gift.
Review, take a guess on the above questions and tell me what you thought!
Callista Rose