Hermione Investigates
Chapter 3
"I thought Muggles didn't have pictures that moved," said Ginny, looking at the box in the corner.
"That's the telly," I said.
"If it bothers you, we can switch it off," said Mum, picking up the remote and pushing the OFF button.
Ginny went into a panic "Where did the picture go?"
That surprised me. Even after four years' exposure to wizard culture, there are some things I don't understand, and one of them is the precise attitude toward pictures. They don't regard talking, moving pictures, like the Fat Lady who guards the entrance to Gryffindor, as fully human, but apparently they got shocked if a picture seems to be casually destroyed. Mum was even more confused than I was, but could tell she had done something that upset Ginny. "I'm sorry, I'll turn the telly back on. She used the remote, and indeed the telly came back on, but on a different channel, replacing the news report with a talk show. Ginny looked more dismayed than ever; she must have thought Mum had destroyed one picture and produced another one out of the blue.
"Excuse me – gotta visit the loo –" she hurried out of the breakfast room.
"I'm sorry, I think your friend is experiencing culture shock. Too much Muggleness," said Dad.
"I know, I didn't expect that," I said guiltily. Harry and I didn't experience similar culture shock when we first got to Hogwarts, but I realized that they were reasons for that. I had studied the school a lot before arriving there, so it didn't hit me as being strange. Harry had been miserable in his own life and delighted to be somewhere different.
"Perhaps you should think of something familiar that she could do today."
"Hmm – she mentioned last night that she likes riding horses. If you could drop us off at Roans & Rides, maybe—"
"Good, I'll do that," said Mum. She looked at the door through which Ginny had exited. "Minnie, while your friend's out of the room, there's something we should talk about. We had a patient in yesterday, and when we wanted to take X-rays of her teeth, she warned us we'd have to take precautions, because she was carrying a baby. At fifteen!"
I saw where this was going. Since they are out of contact with me for much of the year, they were startled by the information that I might be interested in a boy like Krum, and overestimated just how interested I was. "Mum, I don't plan to get pregnant any time soon!"
"That's the point. She didn't plan it, she—"
"Got herself laid, and everything followed," I finished. I didn't usually use coarse language, but I was anxious to hurry this conversation. "It's not going to happen to me. Number one, I don't intend to get in bed with a boy any time soon. Number two, the girl prefects have told us younger girls how to avoid pregnancy if we do."
"How? We want to make sure it's something reliable, not some old wives' tale."
"It's both. There's a spell for temporarily making a woman barren. It started off as a curse, but a girl can use it to ensure that she doesn't get pregnant."
"Minnie, that doesn't sound good. Using a spell that is intended to cause harm, for the sake of its side-effects."
"Then you should believe me when I say I'm not going to need it any time soon. Now, I think I hear Ginny coming back. Please don't talk about this in front of her."
Ginny indeed came in, and the talk turned to a discussion of horses.
0-0-0
I stood at the fence of the Roans and Rides stables, watching girls ride about on horses, including Ginny. I had never ridden a horse in my life, though I had ridden brooms, and on one occasion, a hippogriff. Ginny had urged me to take beginners' lessons, but I just thought horse riding was a waste of time. You hop up on a horse, you hop off an hour later, and what have you accomplished? Whereas if you curl up with a book for an hour, you often learn something that stays in your brain. What I really wanted to be doing right now was trying to determine what was being done to fight Voldemort, but my obligations as Ginny's hostess required me to be here.
"Hullo, Hermione," said a familiar voice.
"Oh! Hi, Tonks."
Tonks looked relatively normal today. Her hair was blonde, and she was wearing a shirt and jeans that wouldn't attract Muggle attnetion. Unlike many witches, Tonks' job required her to mingle among Muggles a lot.
"Your parents directed me here. Didn't know you liked horses."
"I don't, really, but I have a visiting friend who does. Oh, here she comes now," I added, since Ginny was now riding her horse in our direction.
She reined in on the other side of the fence. "Hi, Tonks."
" 'Lo, Ginny."
"You two knows each other?" I asked in surprise.
"Tonks goes out sometimes with my older brother, Bill," said Ginny.
"I suppose, in the Wizard world, pretty much everybody knows everybody," I mused. I remembered reading about a Muggle sociologist who calculated the probability of two random Americans knowing each other, and came up with the notion of "six degrees of separation". In the close-knit society of British wizards, the probability would be a lot higher.
"Not just that," said Tonks. "The Weasleys and I share a great-great-grandfather somewhere, so you could say we're distant cousins."
"Wait a minute. Last year you told me Malfoy was your first cousin, so –"
"We're distantly related to the Malfoys, yes," said Ginny, dismounting from her horse to take better part in the conversation.
"And yet he snubs you and your brothers all the time."
"Oh, yes, we're the family black sheep," said Ginny drily. "Or blood traitors, as he puts it. Not that I care."
That made sense of some things. Two years ago I had suspected Malfoy of opening the Chamber of Secrets, but it turned out to be Ginny, under Voldemort/Riddle's spell. How had she managed it? Because as a cousin of Draco's, she, too, was an "Heir of Slytherin". And I was starting to realize what an outsider I must seem to Malfoy, "Me and my cousin against my neighbor". Not that that justified his rude behaviour to me. I was still proud of punching him in the nose a year ago.
"Yes, Malfoy is a minor problem," I said, seeing an opportunity to transition to a more important subject. "But the crucial thing is You-Know-Who."
"Yes, I've inquired," said Tonks. "Hermione, you don't have to worry. Things are being done."
"What things?" I asked. "You can talk in front in Ginny."
"I can't go into detail," said Tonks. "I promised to keep my mouth shut. Just relax, and know that people are taking care of things."
I was tempted to ask "What people?", but clearly I was not going to get further information out of Tonks, and indeed she started to make excuses about having to leave. Finally she walked off as I watched after her, frustrated. I got the impression that if it weren't for all the Muggles around, she might have left a lot faster, by DisApparating.
"You don't look satisfied, Hermione," remarked Ginny.
"No," I said. "I remember the last time somebody patted me on the head and said 'Don't worry, Minnie, the grownups have everything under control.' It was the day before Quirrel tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone to try to revive Voldemort. And who stopped him? Three kids who insisted on staying worried."
"Well, maybe the grownups are correct this time," said Ginny. "I wouldn't—"
Suddenly she stopped and looked anxious. She put her foot in the stirrup, hoisted herself back onto her horse, turned it around, and rode swiftly away, while I could do nothing but watch her mount's retreating rump.
What brought THAT on?
0-0-0
"I know you think I'm a nervous ninny today," Ginny admitted when we met in the stables' storage room, where people left their handbags and things while they went riding. "But I could definitely sense magic nearby, and it wasn't you, or me, or Tonks."
"Do you have some sort of radar?"
"What's radar?"
"I mean, being able to detect magic in the area. It's never happened to me."
Ginny shrugged. "I've never been aware of it before, but then, up until yesterday, I've always been surrounded by wizards and witches. Maybe it has something to do with being the First Girl in Seven Generations." She turned her key in the slot and opened the box. "Hermione! MY WAND's GONE!"
"Are you sure?" I asked, peering into the box. All I could see was her handbag.
"Of course I'm sure! I brought it with me, then realized that it would be in my way on the horse, so I put it in the box for safekeeping."
I looked in the box again. Who would steal an odd-looking stick from the box? Only a witch or wizard who recognized what it really was. And Ginny's radar had detected something magical nearby.
"Hermione," said Ginny, "I think you're right, and we ought to keep worrying-"
TO BE CONTINUED
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: The matter of using a sterility curse as a contraceptive isn't in the books, but I did mention the idea once before, in a HARRY POTTER story called ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD)
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ginny mentioned the Bill/Tonks connection in HALF-BLOOD PRINCE)