To the Moon and Back - Chapter 3
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 7:45 am. She had been reading late into the night and had overslept as a result. 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 thick, wavy hair was up in a ponytail; her daughter had not inherited the full bushiness of her own hair, for which Hermione was grateful. Hermione smiled and greeted them, opening the refrigerator and taking out a container of blueberry pancake batter.
"Good morning" she said, beaming. "How long have you guys been up?"
"Since seven," Lily answered promptly while James moved a game piece 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.
After breakfast, both children dressed and went out to ride their bicycles around the neighborhood, enjoying the summer sunshine and great weather. Hermione, enjoying the weekend day off of work, perused the paper with her cup of tea in between finishing the children's laundry. The twins returned shortly after noon to bolt down a sandwich and an apple each, eager to return to the nearby park.
"What's going on at the park?" Hermione asked them curiously.
"We're playing Ultimate Frisbee with the other kids. It's awesome! Everybody broke for lunch but the game starts up again at 1," Lily explained enthusiastically. James nodded energetically, his mouth far too full of sandwich to speak. They were soon off again, their bicycles quickly moving out of sight. Hermione smiled. She was glad for the time to herself at the moment.
After pondering the issue throughout the previous week, she had decided that it would be best to relocate to England in the next few weeks. Her parents had been helping a great deal in the complicated processes of finding a house, car, and new job in the country where she had grown up. It would be difficult for her children, as their lives and friends were in Virginia, but she knew they would adjust. The priority for Hermione was that the twins attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she wasn't certain they would be able to do so without living in the UK. With a lot of careful research the previous week, she had located and sent an owl off to the school, letting them know that two children of magical blood would be residing in the country prior to the start of term to ensure that their names were down in the magical registry of the country's wizarding children.
She had still not told Lily or James of this decision. She knew that she must do so soon, but she had wanted a few more details in place before that time came. The twins would have so many questions and she wanted to have as many answers for them as possible. A very necessary part of this conversation would have to include the news that they were a witch and wizard, and on that point, she didn't know precisely where to begin.
Hermione had finished cleaning the kitchen from lunch and just decided to weed the back garden when a knock came at the door. She made to answer it, expecting one of the twins' friends, and pulled open the door.
Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat in shock. She blinked several times to make sure that the person in front of her was not a figment of her imagination.
Minerva McGonagall stood on her front porch, wearing an ordinary blue dress and clutching a leather handbag. Her hair in a tight bun, she looked the same as ever. Hermione stared, and it appeared that Professor McGonagall was staring a bit as well.
"P-professor?" Hermione stammered, moving aside and allowing McGonagall to enter the house.
"Oh, Miss Granger, you are a sight to behold," McGonagall said, and to Hermione's surprise, her eyes grew moist and she swept Hermione into a hug. They broke apart and McGonagall dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.
"Would you, er, like to come in for a cup of tea?"
"Yes, I am here on business, but tea would be lovely." Hermione led her former teacher into her kitchen, where she put a kettle on to boil. McGonagall frowned a bit at this but said nothing.
"What brings out all the way out here, Professor? Did you receive my owl?" Hermione asked, offering Professor McGonagall a tin of thin lemon cookies and bustling around the kitchen for tea cups, saucers, spoons, milk, and sugar. Her hands shook very slightly as she did this. She set everything on the polished kitchen table and the two women sat across from one another.
"Yes, the owl was brought to my attention shortly after it was received at the school," McGonagall said. "It came as a shock, to be quite honest. Nobody in the wizarding community in Britain has seen or heard from you in over a decade, not knowing…" her voice trailed off briefly. "Nobody was certain whether you were dead or alive, what state you were in. Receiving your owl was an immense relief in many ways, but very surprising too. Two children!" she exclaimed. Hermione smiled. Her kids brought her more happiness than anything else.
"Are they the reason you are here?" Hermione asked. Professor McGonagall nodded and opened her handbag. A moment later, she withdrew two envelopes addressed in emerald ink, one each to Miss L. Granger and Mr. J. Granger, 1241 Sandy Creek Road, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America. Hermione took them and smiled.
Just then the tea kettle gave a shrill whistle and she jumped up to fetch it, pouring steaming cups of tea for both of them and leaving the kettle on a trivet on the table.
"It's very good that you wrote, Hermione," Professor McGonagall said, adding milk to her tea. "They weren't originally on our registry of magical children in the country, but I was able to add their names without any trouble."
"Thank you, Professor McGonagall," Hermione said, her hand resting atop the Hogwarts letter. She paused for a moment before adding "It's not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why have you come to deliver these personally?"
"I'd have thought that was obvious," McGonagall said, sipping her tea. "I wanted to check that it was really you who had written. As I said, your whereabouts had been a source of curiosity for all who knew you in our world, particularly for friends who have never ceased to search for you."
Hermione flushed with shame, taking her time adding sugar to her tea, stirring it thoroughly, and taking a swig before replying to it. She thought that her friends in the wizarding world would have searched her out, yes, but primarily because they were angry about what had happened at her hands during the war. Before she could stop herself, she told Professor McGonagall this. Her brow wrinkled in puzzlement.
"What is it that happened?" she asked gently. Hermione took another swig of tea and felt her eyes swim with tears.
"Harry, and Ron and Ginny…" her voice trailed off, and she was suddenly not certain she wanted to relive this and did not know how to begin talking about it. Hermione swallowed hard and told Professor McGonagall everything she was certain she already knew, about how she had been responsible for the deaths of her three closest friends, how she didn't exactly recall what had happened, how that weight of guilt had followed her for all these years, and how she had left the country and the magical world because she was certain that, after what she'd done, nobody would want to see her face again. She recounted how she had fled to the United States, discovered she was pregnant, and searched out her own parents.
Reliving all of this was painful for Hermione, and she soon had to hop up from the table and retrieve a box of tissues. She looked for a reaction on McGonagall's face, but her expression was quite impassive. Both were silent for a long moment before a fleeting look of understanding crossed the professor's face.
"Miss Granger," she said at last, "I understand what you are saying, but there's been a mistake. May I explain?"
"Please," Hermione said, baffled by what Professor McGonagall could possibly have to say to her. McGonagall nodded, taking another drink of tea. Hermione got the distinct impression that she was trying to decide how to begin.
"I believe that you were captured by Death Eaters during the final battle at Hogwarts, and that they modified your memory."
Hermione was dumbstruck. Was this why the details surrounding her final hours at Hogwarts were absent from her memory? She couldn't remember being captured by Death Eaters, she didn't think she had even been alone long enough to be captured and have her memory modified without anyone knowing it. Had any other allies been with her?
A horrible thought dropped into her stomach, one that seemed to grasp her insides and twist them suddenly, making it impossible to breathe for a few moments.
Had she been bewitched to kill her best friends?
There's a nice short one and a bit of a cliffhanger for the 3 of you who seem to be reading :) The next chapter will be up soon.
As always, your reviews are so appreciated