Raised with Magic

Chapter Seventeen: Games

Jared,

I can not believe you! It would be entirely unfair of me to blame you for not telling me, but honestly! Oh, I have so much more to tell you! You might have realized that I used magic that night and so I was adopted by the Lovegoods, a magical family. Our neighbors are the Weasleys. I love flying, quidditch, potions, I've been to Hogwarts. Everything is just so brilliant! Tell me everything you were never allowed to tell me before. Tell me about your Dad's side of the family.

Wow, Jared, this is all so amazing! I don't feel so weird now. I love the Wizarding world, I really feel like I belong here. Does this mean I can mail this strait by owl? If you are sixteen then that would make you a fifth year, right? Tell me everything about your school. Do you play quidditch? Why doesn't Aunt Maggie know? I have to go, Mum's calling me down for lunch.

With Love,

Hermione

Knowing that Jared is a wizard lifted a weight of my shoulders which I hadn't even realized was there. Everything was starting to be right again in this world. Well, no, I don't suppose that is true. The world will never be right again without Daddy and Mother but it certainly feels more solid. I don't feel like I'm drifting so much anymore.

Lunch turned out to be some weird foreign delicacy that both Luna and I agreed was much better described as tasteless mush. But we both ate it to make Dad happy. We just had to swallow quickly so we didn't have to feel the texture of the stuff for too long.

After lunch Luna and I spent the day doing absolutely nothing and yet having a blast. Mum had told Luna about my 'talents' and instead of being jealous Luna was set on creating fun ways for her to help me learn. We laid out of the grass, soaking in the sun and watching the clouds as we brainstormed. We came up with a few games and also changed some games we already knew.

When Luna decided that she wanted my help with her mathematics, I sent her up to her my old book. When she was gone, the most amazing thing happened. I made a flower grow! I don't know how or even why but a patch of dirt simply cried out to me. When I poured out some of my magic into the soil the flower grew under my hand at an amazing rate. We could actually see it grow.

"Hermione," Luna started later that night as we were sitting on her bed playing mancala. We were waiting for dinner to be ready and decided to try out one of our altered games. The challenge for me was to use only my magic to move the stones on my turn. My turns tended to last a lot longer then her own but I was gaining control and we were both happy about that. "I'm really glad you are my sister." The three beads I had been levitating dropped, but I didn't care. I flung myself at Luna, causing the board to crash to the ground. We didn't care, we only laughed.

"What is all the ruckus about?" Dad asked from the doorway where he stood, watching Luna and I sprawled out laughing, still.

"Nothing Dad," Luna voiced breathlessly.

"Yes, well, dinner is ready. And leave the klahforns up here!" Klahforns make people burst out in laughter randomly, they are Dad's flavor of the week.

Dinner turned out to be just Luna, Dad and I because Mum had something important come up in her research that could set them onto a break through. Her and the Professor were currently down in the lab and have been for the better part of the day. They haven't even eaten lunch or dinner.

Dinners here tended to be really interesting. Both Dad and Luna tend to be really good cooks, what makes the dinners interesting is that they love to experiment with the foods and they almost always find the strangest recipes from around the world. Tonight we were having what I learned was Koshary pasta. The Egyptian recipe meant we spent dinner listening to Dad tell us about the time he has spent in Egypt, I really want to go to Egypt. Egypt is were Bill wants to live one day.

"By the way, another letter from your cousin came when you girls were outside."

"Really?" I took the letter with an eager gratitude and tucked it away. This letter would have been written after he learned of my own magic, which means that the letter I had written this morning was for all purposes useless. This didn't bother me though, because Jared knows me and will most likely have answered my questions before he even heard about them.

I opened it the second I entered my room after dinner.

Hermione,

I was only mildly surprised when your Headmaster Dumbledore reappeared to find out about our Magical heritage. I'm glad you're a witch, there is so much more I can tell you now! First off, I know that you will be wondering about if you dad ever knew, he didn't. I know that he and my dad were best friends, but your dad was a muggle and secrecy acts wouldn't have allowed my dad to tell him. I do think he probably would have suspected it though and don't even think about worrying. You know that he would have been proud of you regardless of anything, don't let yourself believe otherwise.

My Mom doesn't know. She hates it when I talk of dragons, like they are real, around her. Imagine what she would do if she found out her first husband and son are wizards. I really hate it sometimes, when I was younger I used to pretend that she would act differently if she knew I was magical, but as I grew up I accepted that she would be devastated to learn of our magic.

Magic goes back as far as Dad's family can be traced. My Dad's side of the family is rather big, but are all rather on the older side. I'm the youngest and the only ones even close to my age are Gram's two sons, my uncles. They're not around much.

Anyway, do you remember my great aunt Cindy? I think you met her once or twice when you visited a few years back. Well. she left her library to you the thing is she was a witch and her library strongly reflected that. Meaning we couldn't send it to you. The collection is around four hundred book. Just let me know if the Lovegoods are alright with us shipping them over. I think that she knew you would be a witch. She always denied it but we all suspected that she was a seer. And no, our family is not known for having any seer's blood.

I'll answer any other questions you have, just ask.

Take care and be safe.

Jared.

P.S. I probably don't have to address this point since I already mentioned that Mom doesn't know, but don't send anything via owl to her. However, anything being sent here at Gram's place is fine to be sent the Wizarding way.

"Another letter from Jared?"

"Yes, Mum." I answered as she sat down on the edge of my bed. "Did things go well?"

"Yeah, I had a breakthrough on the potion with Severus. We ended up having to track down some rare texts." Apparently they hadn't been in the lab all day.

"That reminds me. I'm guessing Uncle Albus told you about my cousin and his dad's side of the family." Mum nodded, not seeing the connection. "Well, my uncle's aunt Cindy apparently left her library to me and Jared was telling me about it in his letter. The books are magical which made it confusing to them why she left them to me. But-

"It's alright dear, they can send them over, it's fine." She stopped my babbling. She had grasped on to what I was actually trying to ask. She is good at that.

"Are you sure, according to Jared it might be close to four hundred books." I was nervous, I really wanted those books.

"That's fine, and what magic is for." she winked, kissed me on the brow and left to talk to Luna. I really do love Mum.